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Register a new userUltrasmall divergence of laser-driven ion beams from nanometer thick foils
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We report on experimental studies of divergence of proton beams from nanometer thick diamond-like carbon (DLC) foils irradiated by an intense laser with high contrast. Proton beams with extremely small divergence (half angle) of 2 degree are observed in addition with a remarkably well-collimated feature over the whole energy range, showing one order of magnitude reduction of the divergence angle in comparison to the results from micrometer thick targets. We demonstrate that this reduction arises from a steep longitudinal electron density gradient and an exponentially decaying transverse profile at the rear side of the ultrathin foils. Agreements are found both in an analytical model and in particle-in-cell simulations. Those novel features make nm foils an attractive alternative for high flux experiments relevant for fundamental research in nuclear and warm dense matter physics.
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We propose a scheme to overcome the great challenge of polarization loss in spin-polarized ion acceleration. When a petawatt laser pulse penetrates through a compound plasma target consisting of a double layer slab and prepolarized hydrogen halide gas, a strong forward moving quasistatic longitudinal electric field is constructed by the self-generated laser-driven plasma. This field with a varying drift velocity efficiently boosts the prepolarized protons via a two-stage coherent acceleration process. Its merit is not only achieving a highly energetic beam but also eliminating the undesired polarization loss of the accelerated protons. We study the proton dynamics via Hamiltonian analyses, specifically deriving the threshold of triggering the two-stage coherent acceleration. To confirm the theoretical predictions, we perform three-dimensional PIC simulations, where unprecedented proton beams with energy approximating half GeV and polarization ratio $sim$ 94% are obtained.
The ion beam bunching in a cascaded target normal sheath acceleration is investigated by theoretical analysis and particle-in-cell simulations. It is found that a proton beam can be accelerated and bunched simultaneously by injecting it into the rising sheath field at the rear side of a laser-irradiated foil target. In the rising sheath field, the ion phase rotation may take place since the back-end protons of the beam feels a stronger field than the front-end protons. Consequently, the injected proton beam can be compressed in the longitudinal direction. At last, the vital role of the ion beam bunching is illustrated by the integrated simulations of two successive stages in a cascaded acceleration.
A detailed study of direct laser-driven electron acceleration in paraxial Laguerre-Gaussian modes corresponding to helical beams $text{LG}_{0m}$ with azimuthal modes $m=left{1,2,3,4,5right}$ is presented. Due to the difference between the ponderomotive force of the fundamental Gaussian beam $text{LG}_{00}$ and helical beams $text{LG}_{0m}$ we found that the optimal beam waist leading to the most energetic electrons at full width at half maximum is more than twice smaller for the latter and corresponds to a few wavelengths $Delta w_0=left{6,11,19right}lambda_0$ for laser powers of $P_0 = left{0.1,1,10right}$ PW. We also found that for azimuthal modes $mgeq 3$ the optimal waist should be smaller than $Delta w_0 < 19 lambda_0$. Using these optimal values we have observed that the average kinetic energy gain of electrons is about an order of magnitude larger in helical beams compared to the fundamental Gaussian beam. This average energy gain increases with the azimuthal index $m$ leading to collimated electrons of a few $100$ MeV energy in the direction of the laser propagation.
Scaling laws of ion acceleration in ultrathin foils driven by radiation pressure of intense laser pulses are investigated by theoretical analysis and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Considering the instabilities are inevitable during laser plasma interaction, the maximum energy of ions should have two contributions: the bulk acceleration driven by radiation pressure and the sheath acceleration in the moving foil reference induced by hot electrons. A theoretical model is proposed to quantitatively explain the results that the cutoff energy and energy spread are larger than the predictions of light sail model, observed in simulations and experiments for a large range of laser and target parameters. Scaling laws derived from this model and supported by the simulation results are verified by the previous experiments.
The emission characteristics of intense laser driven protons are controlled using ultra-strong (of the order of 10^9 V/m) electrostatic fields varying on a few ps timescale. The field structures are achieved by exploiting the high potential of the target (reaching multi-MV during the laser interaction). Suitably shaped targets result in a reduction in the proton beam divergence, and hence an increase in proton flux while preserving the high beam quality. The peak focusing power and its temporal variation are shown to depend on the target characteristics, allowing for the collimation of the inherently highly divergent beam and the design of achromatic electrostatic lenses.
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