Collimated protons accelerated from an overdense gas jet irradiated by a 1 micron wavelength high-intensity short-pulse laser

2017/08/08 by S. N. Chen, Marija Vranić, Chen, S. N. +29
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1708.02492

openalex publication_date 2017/08/08 · openalex created_date 2017/08/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We have investigated proton acceleration in the forward direction from a near-critical density hydrogen gas jet target irradiated by a high intensity (10¹8 W/cm²), short-pulse (5 ps) laser with wavelength of 1.054 micron. We observe the signature of shock acceleration driven by the laser pulse, leading to monoenergetic proton beams with small divergence in addition to the commonly used electron-sheath driven proton acceleration. The proton energies we obtained are modest (~MeV), but prospects for improvement are offered through tailoring the gas jet density profile. Also, we observe that this mechanism is very robust in producing those beams and thus can be considered as a future candidate in laser-driven ion sources driven by the upcoming next generation of multi-PW near-infrared lasers.

Citations

• Electric field detection in laser-plasma interaction experiments via the proton imaging technique

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