Conditions for efficient and stable ion acceleration by moderate circularly polarized laser pulses at intensities of 1020 W/cm2

Qiao, B.; Kar, S.; Borghesi, M.; Geissler, M.; Dromey, B.; Gibbon, P.; Zepf, M.; Schreiber, J.

doi:10.1063/1.3577573

Journal Article

Conditions for efficient and stable ion acceleration by moderate circularly polarized laser pulses at intensities of 1020 W/cm2

Qiao, B.FZJ* ; Zepf, M. ; Gibbon, P.FZJ* ; Borghesi, M. ; Dromey, B. ; Kar, S.FZJ* ; Schreiber, J. ; Geissler, M.

2011
American Institute of Physics [S.l.]

Physics of plasmas 18, 043102 (2011) [10.1063/1.3577573]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/7290 doi:10.1063/1.3577573

Abstract: Conditions for efficient and stable ion radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) from thin foils by circularly polarized laser pulses at moderate intensities are theoretically and numerically investigated. It is found that the unavoidable decompression of the co-moving electron layer in Light-Sail RPA leads to a change of the local electrostatic field from a "bunching" to a "debunching" profile, ultimately resulting in premature termination of ion acceleration. One way to overcome this instability is the use of a multispecies foil where the high-Z ions act as a sacrificial species to supply excess co-moving electrons for preserving stable acceleration of the lower-Z ion species. It is shown by 2D particle-in-cell simulations that 100 MeV/u monoenergetic C6+ ion beams are produced by irradiation of a Cu-C-mixed foil with laser pulses at intensities 5 x 10(20) W/cm(2), which can be easily achieved by current day lasers. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3577573]

Keyword(s): J

Classification:

Physics, Fluids & Plasmas

Note: B.Q. acknowledges the support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. M.Z. thanks the support from the Royal Society. The work was also supported by EPSRC (Grant Nos. EP/C003586/1 and EP/D/06337X/1). Computing resources on JUROPA at JSC (Grant Nos. jzam04 and jjsc04) and VIP at RZG (collaboration grant with MPQ) are both acknowledged.

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