Polarization Dependence of Bulk Ion Acceleration from Ultrathin Foils Irradiated by High-Intensity Ultrashort Laser Pulses

Year: 2017

Authors: Scullion C., Doria D., Romagnani L., Sgattoni A., Naughton K., Symes D. R., McKenna P., Macchi A., Zepf M., Kar S., Borghesi M.

Autors Affiliation: 1) Centre for Plasma Physics, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom
2) LULI, École Polytechnique, CNRS, Route de Saclay, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France
3) Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR/INO), Laboratorio Adriano Gozzini, 56124 Pisa, Italy
4) Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, United Kingdom 5) SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom
6) Dipartimento di Fisica Enrico Fermi, Università di Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy
7) Helmholtz Institute Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany

Abstract: The acceleration of ions from ultrathin (10-100 nm) carbon foils has been investigated using intense (similar to 6 x 10(20) W cm(-2)) ultrashort (45 fs) laser pulses, highlighting a strong dependence of the ion beam parameters on the laser polarization, with circularly polarized (CP) pulses producing the highest energies for both protons and carbons (25 – 30 MeV/nucleon); in particular, carbon ion energies obtained employing CP pulses were significantly higher (similar to 2.5 times) than for irradiations employing linearly polarized pulses. Particle-in-cell simulations indicate that radiation pressure acceleration becomes the dominant mechanism for the thinnest targets and CP pulses.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

Volume: 119 (5)      Pages from: 054801-1  to: 054801-6

More Information: The authors acknowledge funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grants No. EP/K022415/1, No. EP/J003832/1, No. EP/J500094/1, No. EP/I029206/1, No. EP/L002221/1, and No. EP/J002550/1) and facility access provided by the Science and Technology Facility Council. The simulations were run on 16384 BlueGene/Q cores on FERMI at CINECA (Bologna, Italy). The authors also acknowledge support from the laser and technical staff and target fabrication group at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.054801

Citations: 46
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