Effect of a laser prepulse on fast ion generation in the interaction of ultra-short intense laser pulses with a limited-mass foil target

Abstract

Fast electrons generated in ultra-intense laser interaction with a solid target can produce multi-MeV ions from laser-induced plasmas. These fast ions can have different applications ranging from ion implantation to nuclear reactions. The most important parameter is the efficiency of fast ion production. An analytical model and particle-in-cell simulations were employed to examine acceleration mechanisms that can provide an optimal plasma density distribution due to a laser prepulse. We considered the acceleration of ions leaving a plasma layer with different density gradients, from a step-like overdense plasma to an underdense plasma with a smooth density gradient. The effects of the plasma initial scale length and density on the ion acceleration were analysed, and we found that the optimal case should have some plasma parameters. It is shown that overdense plasmas provide a higher density of accelerated ion energy than underdense plasmas at intensities below 10 19 W cm −2 .

Investigations of Field Dynamics in Laser Plasmas with Proton Imaging

“…It has to be noted that these estimations are very rough and can only deliver the order of magnitude of the parameters. For a better understanding and predictions of the ion beam parameters, PIC simulations or hydrodynamical models are required and can be found in several publications [46,47,[69][70][71].…”

“…• − 30 • [59,69] and leave the target at the rear side. Some of these hot electrons, named precursor electrons, escape leaving a positive charged target behind.…”

Double relativistic electron-accelerating mirror

“…Thin electron layers can be formed during the scattering of linear p-polarized intense laser pulse by a solid target [ 3,4]. Finally, the fast particle bunches can be generated during the interaction of intense laser pulse with nonuniform targets out of the target's rear [ 5]; however, their width is much thicker and in the order of 100 nm. Compared to such alternatives, the usage of an ultra-thin grafene target [6][7][8], irradiated by circular-polarized pulse, has many advantages due to the fact that only one electron bunch is generated; the bunch charge achieves high magnitude (>1 nC) and the parameters (energy, width and particles number density) can be easily controlled by changing the laser intensity, pulse duration and layer width.…”

Generation of high contrast and high spatial quality idler from a low-gain optical parametric amplifier

“…Exciting and rapidly developing investigations of lasermatter interactions at relativistic laser intensities have been enabled by the development of chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) techniques [1]. For these kind of interactions the temporal contrast of the laser pulse is one of the key parameters, since prepulses and pedestals can damage or deform the target before the arrival of the main pulse [2,3]. A suitably high contrast for some applications cannot be achieved from a regenerative pre-amplifier because even a very small pre-pulse can be amplified to a level sufficient to pre-ionize the target.…”

“…For these kind of interactions the temporal contrast of the laser pulse is one of the key parameters, since prepulses and pedestals can damage or deform the target before the arrival of the main pulse [2,3]. A suitably high contrast for some applications cannot be achieved from a regenerative pre-amplifier because even a very small pre-pulse can be amplified to a level sufficient to pre-ionize the target.…”