Energetic collimated ion bunch generation from an ultraintense laser interacting with thin concave targets

Abstract

The interaction of an ultraintense laser pulse with parabolic concave target is studied using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. It is found that ions at the back of the concave target can be accelerated more effectively than that with a plane target because of a large electrostatic field on the propagation axis induced by focusing of the laser expelled electrons. A highly collimated ion bunch with high particle and current densities appears. The dependence of the quality of ion acceleration and bunching on the width of the concave cavity is examined. It is found that the maximum ion energy is greatly enhanced when the width of the cavity attains a threshold, and an optimum width for generating a high-quality ion bunch exists. The results should be useful in the design of targets used in producing highly collimated energetic ions in high-energy-density physics.