A quasi-monoenergetic short time duration compact proton source for probing high energy density states of matter

J I Apiñaniz,J Balboa,W Cayzac,F Beg,L Roso,D Batani,J J Santos,R Fedosejevs,M Bailly-Grandvaux,K Bhutwala,D De Luis,X Vaisseau,J A Perez-Hernandez,S Malko,L Volpe,C Mcguffey,G Gatti,V Ospina-Bohorquez

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-86234-x

Abstract

We report on the development of a highly directional, narrow energy band, short time duration proton beam operating at high repetition rate. The protons are generated with an ultrashort-pulse laser interacting with a solid target and converted to a pencil-like narrow-band beam using a compact magnet-based energy selector. We experimentally demonstrate the production of a proton beam with an energy of 500 keV and energy spread well below 10% , and a pulse duration of 260 ps. The energy loss of this beam is measured in a 2 upmu m thick solid Mylar target and found to be in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. The short time duration of the proton pulse makes it particularly well suited for applications involving the probing of highly transient plasma states produced in laser-matter interaction experiments. This proton source is particularly relevant for measurements of the proton stopping power in high energy density plasmas and warm dense matter.

Highlights

We report on the development of a highly directional, narrow energy band, short time duration proton beam operating at high repetition rate
We present results of proton beams of E = 498 ± 4 keV with a minimum energy bandwidth E = 33 ± 4 keV at Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM), 1Centro de Laseres Pulsados (CLPU), Parque Cientifico, 37185 Villamayor, Salamanca, Spain. 2Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2V4, Canada. 3University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain. 4CEA, DAM, DIF, 91297 Arpajon, France. 5CNRS, CEA, CELIA (Centre Lasers Intenses et Applications), UMR 5107, University of Bordeaux, 33405 Talence, France. 6Center for Energy Research, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. 7Laser-Plasma Chair at the University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain. 8Instituto Universitario Física Fundamental y Matemáticas, 37008 Salamanca, Spain. *email: japinaniz@clpu.es
The characterization of the proton energy selector was performed at the CLPU using the 30 fs, 200 TW system VEGA 2

Summary

Introduction

We report on the development of a highly directional, narrow energy band, short time duration proton beam operating at high repetition rate. The selection of the proton beam of ∼ 500 keV energy was performed by using various apertures for entrance slit (20 and 50 μ m) and exit pinhole (10–200 μm).

Results

Conclusion