Abstract
Acceleration of ions from ultrathin foils irradiated by intense circularly polarized laser pulses is investigated using one- and two-dimensional particle simulations. A circularly polarized laser wave heats the electrons much less efficiently than the wave of linear polarization and the ion acceleration process takes place on the front side of the foil. The ballistic evolution of the foil becomes important after all ions contained in the foil have been accelerated. In the ongoing acceleration process, the whole foil is accelerated as a dense compact bunch of quasineutral plasma implying that the energy spectrum of ions is quasimonoenergetic. Because of the ballistic evolution, the velocity spread of an accelerated ion beam is conserved while the average velocity of ions may be further increased. This offers the possibility to control the parameters of the accelerated ion beam. The ion acceleration process is described by the momentum transfer from the laser beam to the foil and it might be fairly efficient in terms of the energy transferred to the heavy ions even if the foil contains a comparable number of light ions or some surface contaminants. Two-dimensional simulations confirm the formation of the quasimonoenergetic spectrum of ions and relatively good collimation of the ion bunch, however the spatial distribution of the laser intensity poses constraints on the maximum velocity of the ion beam. The present ion acceleration mechanism might be suitable for obtaining a dense high energy beam of quasimonoenergetic heavy ions which can be subsequently applied in nuclear physics experiments. Our simulations are complemented by a simple theoretical model which provides the insights on how to control the energy, number, and energy spread of accelerated ions.
Highlights
Collimated beams of energetic ions produced in interactions of short intense laser pulses with solid density thin foil targets have been demonstrated in experiments [1,2,3,4] and particle simulations [5]
These ion beams are attracting much attention due to a wide range of their potential applications covering high resolution radiography imaging, probing for strong electrostatic fields induced in plasmas, radioisotope production, isochoric heating, cancer therapy etc
We propose a new mechanism of a monoenergetic ion beam generation that is especially suitable for acceleration of heavy ions where the existing ion acceleration mechanisms are inefficient
Summary
Collimated beams of energetic ions produced in interactions of short intense laser pulses with solid density thin foil targets have been demonstrated in experiments [1,2,3,4] and particle simulations [5]. These ion beams are attracting much attention due to a wide range of their potential applications covering high resolution radiography imaging, probing for strong electrostatic fields induced in plasmas, radioisotope production, isochoric heating, cancer therapy etc.
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More From: Physical Review Special Topics - Accelerators and Beams
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