High-Quality Energetic Proton Beams from an Intense Laser-Plasma Interaction with a Micro-Structured Slab Target

Abstract

High-quality energetic proton-beam generation from the interaction of a high-intensity short-pulse laser with an overdense plasma slab has been studied by using a two-dimensional, fully electromagnetic and relativistic particle-in-cell simulation. The collimation and the beam divergence of the accelerated protons are expected to strongly depend on the spatial coupling between the laser pulse and the target plasma. In this work, with a proper micro-modification of the target structure, improved beam quality, including the collimation, the forward directionality and the beam divergence, are clearly demonstrated. For a detailed analysis, the relativistic momentum distribution, the spatial density map and the angular distribution of the accelerated protons are considered.