High-quality proton bunch from laser interaction with a gas-filled cone target

Abstract

Generation of high-energy proton bunch from interaction of an intense short circularly polarized(CP) laser pulse with a gas-filled cone target(GCT) is investigated using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The GCT target consists of a hollow cone filled with near-critical gasplasma and a thin foil attached to the tip of the cone. It is observed that as the laser pulse propagates in the gas-plasma, the nonlinear focusing will result in an enhancement of the laser pulse intensity. It is shown that a large number of energetic electrons are generated from the gas-plasma and accelerated by the self-focused laser pulse. The energetic electrons then transports through the foil, forming a backside sheath field which is stronger than that produced by a simple planar target. A quasi-monoenergetic proton beam with maximum energy of 181 MeV is produced from this GCT target irradiated by a CP laser pulse at an intensity of 2.6 × 10 20 W/cm 2 , which is nearly three times higher compared to simple planar target(67MeV).

Optimization of relativistic laser–ion acceleration

“…[116] ) and theoretical results obtained from PIC simulations are marked by green circles (Pukhov [71] , Wang et al. [117] , Qiao et al. [40] , Sgattoni et al.…”

“…The parameters are A i /q i = 2, R = η = 1, r L = R s = 1 µm (solid) and r L = R s = 10 µm (dashed). Some selected experimental results are represented by blue squares (Bin et al [112] , Henig et al [51] , Mackinnon et al [108] , Zeil et al [113] , Ogura et al [68] , Jong Kim et al [114] , Green et al [115] , Jung et al [116] ) and theoretical results obtained from PIC simulations are marked by green circles (Pukhov [71] , Wang et al [117] , Qiao et al [40] , Sgattoni et al [118] , Yan et al [75] , Esirkepov et al [35] ). For details, see text.…”

Ion acceleration enhanced by target ablation

“…[7][8][9] Meanwhile, recent experiment work, 10,11 based on quasi-uniform low density carbon foam, realized 2-3 times ion energy improvement for nonrelativistic laser pulse, but failed to increase the ion energy in relativistic regime. Also by using target front ablation, only 10%-27% improvement (from 30 MeV to 38 MeV) is observed 12,13 in relativistic experiment.…”

Simulation of the Quasi-Monoenergetic Protons Generation by Parallel Laser Pulses Interaction with Foils

“…The ultrathin foil is then destroyed and RPA stopped. In the past few years, much work has been devoted to improving the uniformity of the laser intensity by manipulating the target, including tailored, [17] composite, [18] and gas-filled-cone [19] targets, etc.…”