TY - JOUR
T1 - Laser acceleration of protons using multi-ion plasma gaseous targets
AU - Liu, Tung-Chang
AU - Shao, Xi
AU - Liu, Chuan-Sheng
AU - Eliasson, Bengt
AU - Hill III, W T
AU - Wang, Jyhpyng
AU - Chen, Shih-Hung
PY - 2015/2/4
Y1 - 2015/2/4
N2 - We present a theoretical and numerical study of the novel acceleration scheme by applying a combination of laser radiation pressure and shielded Coulomb repulsion in laser acceleration of protons in multi-species gaseous targets. By using a circularly polarized CO2 laser pulse with a wavelength of 10 μm, much greater than that of a Ti:Sapphire laser, the critical density is significantly reduced, and a high-pressure gaseous target can be used to achieve an overdense plasma. This gives us a larger degree of freedom in selecting the target compounds or mixtures, as well as their density and thickness profiles. By impinging such a laser beam on a carbon-hydrogen target, the gaseous target is first compressed and accelerated by radiation pressure until the electron layer disrupts, after which the protons are further accelerated by the electron-shielded carbon ion layer. An 80 MeV quasi-monoenergetic proton beam can be generated using a half-sine shaped laser beam with peak power 70 TW and pulse duration of 150 wave periods.
AB - We present a theoretical and numerical study of the novel acceleration scheme by applying a combination of laser radiation pressure and shielded Coulomb repulsion in laser acceleration of protons in multi-species gaseous targets. By using a circularly polarized CO2 laser pulse with a wavelength of 10 μm, much greater than that of a Ti:Sapphire laser, the critical density is significantly reduced, and a high-pressure gaseous target can be used to achieve an overdense plasma. This gives us a larger degree of freedom in selecting the target compounds or mixtures, as well as their density and thickness profiles. By impinging such a laser beam on a carbon-hydrogen target, the gaseous target is first compressed and accelerated by radiation pressure until the electron layer disrupts, after which the protons are further accelerated by the electron-shielded carbon ion layer. An 80 MeV quasi-monoenergetic proton beam can be generated using a half-sine shaped laser beam with peak power 70 TW and pulse duration of 150 wave periods.
KW - gaseous targets
KW - laser accelerated protons
KW - laser acceleration
UR - http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/17/2/023018
U2 - 10.1088/1367-2630/17/2/023018
DO - 10.1088/1367-2630/17/2/023018
M3 - Article
VL - 17
JO - New Journal of Physics
JF - New Journal of Physics
SN - 1367-2630
IS - 2
M1 - 023018
ER -