2009/08/27 by A. Henig, S. Steinke, M. Schnürer +11 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.103.245003
arxiv created 2009/08/27 · arxiv updated 2015/05/14
We present experimental studies on ion acceleration from ultra-thin diamond-like carbon (DLC) foils irradiated by ultra-high contrast laser pulses of energy 0.7 J focussed to peak intensities of 5*1019 W/cm2. A reduction in electron heating is observed when the laser polarization is changed from linear to circular, leading to a pronounced peak in the fully ionized carbon spectrum at the optimum foil thickness of 5.3 nm. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations reveal, that those C6+ ions are for the first time dominantly accelerated in a phase-stable way by the laser radiation pressure.