Modeling the interaction of an ultra-high intensity laser pulse with an ultra-thin nanostructured foil target

Abstract

New plastic nanostructured foil targets interacting with an ultra-high intensity laser pulse are investigated by performing particle-in-cell simulations. The thickness of the ultra-thin planar and nanostructured foil target is in the range of tens of nanometers. Complementary numerical simulations which use the finite-difference time-domain method without considering plasma generation have been performed. The laser pulse has the parameters of the two 10 PW lasers from ELI-NP. The circularly polarized laser pulse has the twice intensity of the linearly polarized (LP) laser pulse. We show a strong dependence of the maximum proton energy on the nanospheres diameter. But, the carbon ion maximum energy varies very weak with the nanospheres diameter. We prove that the acceleration regime of the protons is a combination of the radiation pressure acceleration and target normal sheath acceleration regimes. The carbon ions experience the target normal sheath acceleration. This study is a very useful tool for the preparation of laser-ion acceleration experiments with nanostructured foil targets at ELI-NP and other PW laser facilities.