Dynamics of guided post-acceleration of protons in a laser-driven travelling-field accelerator

Hadjisolomou, Prokopis; Ahmed, H.; Prasad, R.; Cerchez, M.; Brauckmann, S.; Aurand, B.; Schroer, A. M.; Swantusch, M.; Willi, O.; Borghesi, M.; Kar, S.

doi:10.1088/1361-6587/abb91a

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(60 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The SSHC provides a significant enhancement in proton flux, compared to the reference FF shot, over a broad energy range of 20-30 MeV due to the focussing, and post-acceleration of lower-energy, higher flux TNSA protons. The observed broad spectral profile of the HC-driven proton bunch is typical of the case where the HC is attached directly to the proton generating foil and the electric field pattern acts on a broadband proton energy range close to their source before they are significantly dispersed along the HC axis [3,18,25]. Such a broad spectral peak with moderately good collimation was chosen as a suitable candidate to study beam injection into a second stage, as discussed later, for the intended temporal scan covering a range of proton energies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Under optimum injection conditions, the resulting energy gain of the proton bunch was double that of a single stage. This method also addresses the issue of the accelerated proton bunch outrunning the electric field in a HC [18], which limits energy gain to the initial ∼10 mm of HC [13,18]. A systematic temporal scan demonstrates that the spectral peak energy in a dual stage HC configuration is highly sensitive (on the ps scale) to the delay between the driving laser pulses, which is further corroborated by particle tracing simulations elucidating the injection dynamics of a TNSA seed beam of broad spectral profile.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…above 60 MeV) by using multiple pulses at more moderate power, rather than a single laser pulse at PW power or above. The multi-stage approach also addresses the issue of desynchronisation in HC accelerators as highlighted in earlier works [13,18], which hinders the continuous acceleration of a desired proton bunch to high energies. This data serves as a proof of principle work for further exploration on multi-PW, multi-beam systems which will become available in coming years [27][28][29][30].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Dual stage approach to laser-driven helical coil proton acceleration

et al. 2023

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Helical coil accelerators are a recent development in laser-driven ion production, acting on the intrinsically wide divergence and broadband energy spectrum of laser-accelerated protons to deliver ultra-low divergence and quasi-monoenergetic beams. The modularity of helical coil accelerators also provides the attractive prospective of multi-staging. Here we show, on a proof-of-principle basis, a two-stage configuration which allows optical tuning of the energy of the selected proton beamlet. Experimental data, corroborated by particle tracing simulations, highlights the importance of controlling precisely the beam injection. Efficient post-acceleration of the protons with an energy gain up to ~16 MeV (~8 MeV per stage, at an average rate of ~1 GeV/m) was achieved at an optimal time delay, which allows synchronisation of the selected protons with the accelerating longitudinal electric fields to be maintained through both stages.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Dual stage approach to laser-driven helical coil proton acceleration

et al. 2023

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The EMP problem continues to attract interest and new results on EMP measurements are continually being published, both for the short-pulse [15][16][17][18] and long-pulse facilities [19]. It should be noted that mechanisms involved in EMP generation are relevant also to other areas of laser plasma research, such as the post-acceleration guiding of laser-accelerated ions [20,21] and generation of strong quasi-static magnetic fields with the use of capacitor-coil targets [22][23][24][25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of strong electromagnetic pulses generated from solid targets at sub-ns kJ-class PALS laser facility

Ra̧czka

Cikhardt

Pfeifer

et al. 2021

Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Measurements had been performed of strong electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) generated as a result of laser–target interaction at the sub-ns kJ-class Prague Asterix Laser System facility. Two conductive Prodyn FD5C D-dot pencil probes were used. Measurements were performed inside the experimental chamber and outside the chamber in a large chamber window 40 cm in diameter in a setup that guaranteed 6 GHz bandwidth. A very good signal-to-noise ratio (17:1) was obtained after some steps were taken to ensure proper EMP shielding of the data collection setup. The EMP signal in the time domain was found to have the form of a sharp initial spike followed by gradually decaying oscillations interspersed with some secondary spikes. The values of the vertical component of the electric field strength were estimated. The highest value recorded in this experiment was 620 − 180 + 260 kV m−1 at a distance of 40 cm from the target. It was observed that plastic targets—particularly the 100s of µm thick plastic foils—tend to generate stronger EMP fields than Cu and Au targets. A time-frequency analysis was performed for a typical shot, clearly showing some spectral features that appear only sometime after the start of the signal and hence indicate EMP generation from secondary sources. Electrons ejected from the target were recorded with the energies exceeding 1.5 MeV, which indicates that highly energetic processes are triggered as a result of the laser–target interaction.

show abstract

All-optical edge-enhanced proton imaging driven by an intense vortex laser

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An all-optical approach to edge-enhanced proton radiography is realized by using a relativistic vortex laser irradiating on nanometer-thick foil. In the proof-of-principle experiments, the hollow proton beam was successfully produced by the transparent target normal electric field sheath in the break-out after-burner acceleration mechanism, using a superintense Laguerre–Gauss laser with the highest intensity of the laser exceeded 1020 W/cm2. An insect was imaged with the proton beam; the leg structures on the edge were clearly captured. By contrast, the dot proton source produced by a Gaussian laser was almost completely blocked by the insect's body, losing most edge information. Hollow-structured proton beams driven by vortex lasers conquer the dot imaging limit for high-energy proton beams, which may benefit imaging of capsule implosions in inertial confined fusion, instability research on expanding plasma, and precise positioning in medical therapy.

show abstract

Dynamics of guided post-acceleration of protons in a laser-driven travelling-field accelerator

Abstract: Dynamics of guided post-acceleration of protons in a laser-driven travelling-field accelerator. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 62(11), [115023].

Cited by 4 publications

References 39 publications

Dual stage approach to laser-driven helical coil proton acceleration

Dual stage approach to laser-driven helical coil proton acceleration

Measurement of strong electromagnetic pulses generated from solid targets at sub-ns kJ-class PALS laser facility

All-optical edge-enhanced proton imaging driven by an intense vortex laser

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About