Abstract
Laser-driven ion accelerators have the advantages of compact size, high density, and short bunch duration over conventional accelerators. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to simultaneously enhance the yield and quality of laser-driven ion beams for practical applications. Here we propose a scheme to address this challenge via the use of emerging multi-petawatt lasers and a density-modulated target. The density-modulated target permits its ions to be uniformly accelerated as a dense block by laser radiation pressure. In addition, the beam quality of the accelerated ions is remarkably improved by embedding the target in a thick enough substrate, which suppresses hot electron refluxing and thus alleviates plasma heating. Particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate that almost all ions in a solid-density plasma of a few microns can be uniformly accelerated to about 25% of the speed of light by a laser pulse at an intensity around 1022 W/cm2. The resulting dense block of energetic ions may drive fusion ignition and more generally create matter with unprecedented high energy density.
Highlights
Laser-driven ion accelerators have the advantages of compact size, high density, and short bunch duration over conventional accelerators
We propose a route towards the hole-boring radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) of ion beams with high yield and high quality
These results indicate that the substrate plays a crucial role in sustaining the high-quality hole-boring RPA, despite the fact that it does not directly interact with the laser pulse
Summary
Laser-driven ion accelerators have the advantages of compact size, high density, and short bunch duration over conventional accelerators. Laser-driven ion accelerators have various advantages, including higher ion density, shorter bunch duration, and more compact size[3,4,5] These advantages may promise novel ion sources in specialized applications, such as fast ignition of laser fusion[6,7], high energy density physics[8], radiotherapy[9] and radiography[10]. Usually false because the electrons of the target are heated as long as the ions are accelerated To solve these issues, a few ingenious designs have been proposed in the hole-boring RPA, such as using sandwich targets[29] or elliptically polarized laser pulses[30,31]. The precise shaping of the profile of an ultra-short ultra-intense laser pulse is still challenging with current laser techniques
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