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Simulations of carbon ion acceleration by 10 PW laser pulses on ELI-NP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2019

D. Sangwan ,
O. Culfa ,
C.P. Ridgers ,
S. Aogaki ,
D. Stutman  and
B. Diaconescu
D. Sangwan
Affiliation:
“Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics ELI-NP, Romania
O. Culfa*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE68588, USA Department of Physics, Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University, Karaman70200, Turkey
C.P. Ridgers
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, York Plasma Institute, The University of York, YorkYO10 5DD, UK
S. Aogaki
Affiliation:
“Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics ELI-NP, Romania
D. Stutman
Affiliation:
“Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics ELI-NP, Romania Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD21218, USA
B. Diaconescu
Affiliation:
“Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics ELI-NP, Romania
*
Author for correspondence: O. Culfa, Department of Physics, Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University, Karaman, 70200, Turkey. E-mail: ozgurculfa@kmu.edu.tr
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Abstract

We present results of 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of carbon ion acceleration by 10 petawatt (PW) laser pulses, studying both circular polarized (CP) and linear polarized (LP) pulses. We carry out a thickness scanning of a solid carbon target to investigate the ideal thickness for carbon ion acceleration mechanisms using a 10 PW laser with an irradiance of 5 × 1022 W cm−2. The energy spectra of carbon ions and electrons and their temperature are studied. Additionally, for the carbon ions, their angular divergence is studied. It is shown that the ideal thickness for the carbon acceleration is 120 nm and the cutoff energy for carbon ions is 5 and 3 GeV for CP and LP pulses, respectively. The corresponding carbon ions temperature is ~1 and ~0.75 GeV. On the other hand, the energy cutoff for the electrons is ~500 MeV with LP and ~400 MeV with CP laser pulses. We report that the breakout afterburner mechanism is most likely causing the acceleration of carbon ions to such high energies for the optimal target thickness.

Keywords

Laser–plasma interactionsparticle accelerationPIC simulations
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 346 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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