Hole-boring radiation pressure acceleration as a basis for producing high-energy proton bunches

Abstract

The production of high-energy protons by the ‘hole-boring’ radiation pressure acceleration (HB-RPA) mechanism of laser-driven ion acceleration is examined in the case where the plasma has a density less than a0nc in 2D. Previously this was examined in 1D (Robinson 2011 Phys. Plasmas 18 056701) and was motivated by previous predictions of the non-linear criterion for an ultra-intense laser pulse to penetrate a dense plasma. By reducing the density well below a0nc the proton energies achieved increases considerably, thus leading to proton energies >100 MeV at laser intensities close to current capabilities. The results show that good quality proton beams with proton energies >100 MeV can be obtained via HB-RPA using targets with densities in the range 12–20nc and laser intensities in the range 5 × 1021–3 × 1022 W cm−2.