Proton acceleration from high-contrast short pulse lasers interacting with sub-micron thin foils

Petrov, G. M. and McGuffey, C. and Thomas, A. G. R. and Krushelnick, K. and Beg, F. N. (2016) Proton acceleration from high-contrast short pulse lasers interacting with sub-micron thin foils. Journal of Applied Physics, 119 (5). ISSN 0021-8979

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Abstract

A theoretical study complemented with published experimental data of proton acceleration from sub-micron (thickness <1 mu m) foils irradiated by ultra-high contrast (>10(10)) short pulse lasers is presented. The underlying physics issues pertinent to proton acceleration are addressed using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. For laser energy epsilon 4 J (I > 5 x 10(20) W/cm(2)), for which the measured maximum proton energies were much lower than predicted by scaling and these simulations. This unexpected behavior could not be explained within the frame of the model, and we conjecture that pre-pulses preceding the main pulse by picoseconds may be responsible. If technological issues can be resolved, energetic proton beams could be generated for a wide range of applications such as nuclear physics, radiography, and medical science.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Applied Physics
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3100
Subjects:
?? SOLID INTERACTIONSBEAMSGENERATIONABLATIONTARGETSDRIVENIONSPHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY(ALL) ??
ID Code:
79680
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
20 May 2016 12:56
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Sep 2023 00:26