Energetic proton beams from plastic targets irradiated by an ultra-intense laser pulse

Abstract

It has been found that more intense proton beams are generated from plastic foils than metal foils irradiated by an ultraintense laser pulse. The acceleration model, ARIE (Acceleration by a Resistively Induced Electric field) accounts for the experimental observations from plastic foils compared with metal foils. Proton beams on foil thickness and laser prepulse have been observed, which is also well described by the ARIE model. An experiment with an aluminum-coated plastic target strongly suggests that front side acceleration is a dominant acceleration process in plastic targets. We also suggest that a vacuum-sandwiched double layer target could effectively enhance the laser contrast ratio, which was investigated in the combination of a two-dimensional hydro code and a two-dimensional PIC (Particle-In-Cell) code.