Login / Signup

Enhanced ion acceleration from transparency-driven foils demonstrated at two ultraintense laser facilities.

Nicholas P DoverTim ZieglerStefan AssenbaumConstantin BernertStefan BockFlorian-Emanuel BrackThomas E CowanEmma J DitterMarco GartenLennart GausIlja GoethelGeorge S HicksHiromitsu KiriyamaThomas KlugeJames K KogaAkira KonKotaro KondoStephan D KraftFlorian KrollHazel F LoweJosefine Metzkes-NgTatsuhiko MiyatakeZulfikar NajmudinThomas PüschelMartin RehwaldMarvin ReimoldHironao SakakiHans-Peter SchlenvoigtKeiichiro ShiokawaMarvin Elias Paul UmlandtUlrich SchrammKarl ZeilMamiko Nishiuchi
Published in: Light, science & applications (2023)
Laser-driven ion sources are a rapidly developing technology producing high energy, high peak current beams. Their suitability for applications, such as compact medical accelerators, motivates development of robust acceleration schemes using widely available repetitive ultraintense femtosecond lasers. These applications not only require high beam energy, but also place demanding requirements on the source stability and controllability. This can be seriously affected by the laser temporal contrast, precluding the replication of ion acceleration performance on independent laser systems with otherwise similar parameters. Here, we present the experimental generation of >60 MeV protons and >30 MeV u -1 carbon ions from sub-micrometre thickness Formvar foils irradiated with laser intensities >10 21 Wcm 2 . Ions are accelerated by an extreme localised space charge field ≳30 TVm -1 , over a million times higher than used in conventional accelerators. The field is formed by a rapid expulsion of electrons from the target bulk due to relativistically induced transparency, in which relativistic corrections to the refractive index enables laser transmission through normally opaque plasma. We replicate the mechanism on two different laser facilities and show that the optimum target thickness decreases with improved laser contrast due to reduced pre-expansion. Our demonstration that energetic ions can be accelerated by this mechanism at different contrast levels relaxes laser requirements and indicates interaction parameters for realising application-specific beam delivery.
Keyphrases
  • high speed
  • magnetic resonance
  • quantum dots
  • sensitive detection
  • high glucose
  • low cost
  • loop mediated isothermal amplification