Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T08:32:30.794Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Simulations of energetic proton emission in laser–plasma interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2004

LAURENT POMMIER  and
ERIK LEFEBVRE
LAURENT POMMIER
Affiliation:
Département de Physique Théorique et Appliquée, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique/Direction des Applications Militaires Ile de France, Bruyères-le-Châtel, France
ERIK LEFEBVRE
Affiliation:
Département de Physique Théorique et Appliquée, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique/Direction des Applications Militaires Ile de France, Bruyères-le-Châtel, France
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Energetic protons are emitted from thin foils irradiated by short laser pulses at high intensities. One- and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations have been used to study the influence of initial proton position, laser irradiance, and target density profile on this ion acceleration. These simulations bring additional support to the idea that protons are mainly accelerated from the rear side of the target, by electrostatic fields associated with hot electrons escaping into vacuum. The density scale length at the front of the target appears to be the main parameter to increase proton energies when the laser irradiance is fixed.

Keywords

Energetic protonsHot electron productionLaser–plasma interactionNumerical simulationsUltraintense laser pulses
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 2003 , pp. 573 - 581
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Clark, E.L., Krushelnick, K., Davies, J.R., Zepf, M., Tatarakis, M., Beg, F.N., Machacek, A., Norreys, P.A., Santala, M.I.K., Watts, I. & Dangor, A.E. (2000a). Measurements of energetic proton transport through magnetized plasma from intense laser interactions with solids. Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 670–673.Google Scholar
Clark, E.L., Krushelnick, K., Zepf, M., Beg, F.N., Tatarakis, M., Machacek, A., Santala, M.I.K., Watts, I., Norreys, P.A. & Dangor, A.E. (2000b). Energetic heavy-ion and proton generation from ultraintense laser-plasma interactions with solids. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1654–1657.Google Scholar
Denavit, J. (1979). Collisionless plasma expansion into a vacuum. Phys. Fluids 22, 1384–1392.Google Scholar
Denavit, J. (1992). Absorption of high-intensity subpicosecond lasers on solid density targets. Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 3052–3055.Google Scholar
Disdier, L., Garçonnet, J.-P., Malka, G. & Miquel, J.-L. (1999). Fast neutron emission from a high-energy ion beam produced by a high-intensity subpicosecond laser pulse. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1454–1457.Google Scholar
Fews, A.P., Norreys, P.A., Beg, F.N., Bell, A.R., Dangor, A.E., Danson, C.N., Lee, P. & Rose, S.J. (1994). Plasma ion emission from high intensity picosecond laser pulse interactions with solid targets. Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 1801–1804.Google Scholar
Gitomer, S.J., Jones, R.D., Begay, F., Ehler, A.W., Kephart, J.F. & Kristal, R. (1986). Fast ions and hot electrons in the laser-plasma interaction. Phys. Fluids 29, 2679–2688.Google Scholar
Hatchett, S.P., Brown, C.G., Cowan, T.E., Henry, E.A., Johnson, J.S., Key, M.H., Koch, J.A., Langdon, A.B., Lasinski, B.F., Lee, R.W., Mackinnon, A.J., Pennington, D.M., Perry, M.D., Phillips, T.W., Roth, M., Sangster, T.C., Singh, M.S., Snavely, R.A., Stoyer, M.A., Wilks, S.C. & Yasuike, K. (2000). Electron, photon, and ion beams from the relativistic interaction of Petawatt laser pulses with solid targets. Phys. Plasmas 7, 2076–2082.Google Scholar
Hegelich, M., Karsch, S., Pretzler, G., Habs, D., Witte, K., Guenther, W., Allen, M., Blazevic, A., Fuchs, J., Gauthier, J.-C., Geissel, M., Audebert, P., Cowan, T. & Roth M. (2002). MeV ion jets from short-pulse-laser interaction with thin foils. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 085002.Google Scholar
Key, M.H., Cable, M.D., Cowan, T.E., Estabrook, K.G., Hammel, B.A., Hatchett, S.P., Henry, E.A., Hinkel, D.E., Kilkenny, J.D., Koch, J.A., Kruer, W.L., Langdon, A.B., Lasinski, B.F., Lee, R.W., MacGowan, B.J., Mackinnon, A., Moody, J.D., Moran, M.J., Offenberger, A.A., Pennington, D.M., Perry, M.D., Phillips, T.J., Sangster, T.C., Singh, M.S., Stoyer, M.A., Tabak, M., Tietbohl, G.L., Tsukamoto, M., Wharton, K. & Wilks, S.C. (1998). Hot electron production and heating by hot electrons in fast ignitor research. Phys. Plasmas 5, 1966–1972.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, A.J., Borghesi, M., Hatchett, S., Key, M.H., Patel, P.K., Campbell, H., Schiavi, A., Snavely, R., Wilks, S.C. & Willi, O. (2001). Effect of plasma scale length on multi-MeV proton production by intense laser pulses. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 1769–1772.Google Scholar
Malka, G. & Miquel, J.-L. (1996). Experimental confirmation of ponderomotive-force electrons produced by an ultrarelativistic laser pulse on a solid target. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 75–78.Google Scholar
Maksimchuk, A., Gu, S., Flippo, K., Umstadter, D. & Bychenkov, V.Yu. (2000). Forward ion acceleration in thin films driven by a high-intensity laser. Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4108–4111.Google Scholar
Pukhov, A. (2001). Three-dimensional simulations of ion acceleration from a foil irradiated by a short-pulse laser. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3562–3565.Google Scholar
Snavely, R.A., Key, M.H., Hatchett, S.P., Cowan, T.E., Roth, M., Phillips, T.W., Stoyer, M.A., Henry, E.A., Sangster, T.C., Singh, M.S., Wilks, S.C., Mackinnon, A., Offenberger, A., Pennington, D.M., Yasuike, K., Langdon, A.B., Lasinski, B.F., Johnson, J., Perry, M.D. & Campbell, E.M. (2000). Intense high-energy proton beams from Petawatt-laser irradiation of solids. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2945–2948.Google Scholar
Wilks, S.C., Kruer, W.L., Tabak, M. & Langdon, A.B. (1992). Absorption of ultra-intense laser pulses. Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 1383–1386.Google Scholar
Wilks, S.C., Langdon, A.B., Cowan, T.E., Roth, M., Singh, M, Hatchett, S., Key, M.H., Pennington, D., Mackinnon, A. & Snavely, R.A. (2001). Energetic proton generation in ultra-intense laser-solid interactions. Phys. Plasmas 8, 542–549.Google Scholar
Zhidkov, A. & Sasaki, A. (2000). Effect of field ionization on interaction of an intense subpicosecond laser pulse with foils. Phys. Plasmas 7, 1341–1344.Google Scholar