Comparative study of ion acceleration by linearly polarized laser pulses from optimized targets of solid and near-critical density

Abstract

The results of a 3D optimization study of ion acceleration from ultrathin solid density foils (Brantov et al 2015 Phys. Rev. Spec. Top. Accel. Beams 18 021301) are complemented with an improved analytic model of the directed Coulomb explosion. Similarly to optimizing overdense targets, we also optimize low-density targets to obtain maximum ion energy, motivated by progress in producing a new generation of low-density slab targets whose density can be very homogeneous and as low as the relativistic critical density. Using 3D simulations, we show that for the same laser pulse, the ion energy can be significantly increased with low-density targets. A new acceleration mechanism is responsible for such an increase. This mechanism is described qualitatively, and it explains an advantage of low-density targets for high-energy ion production by lasers.