Optimal proton acceleration from lateral limited foil sections and different laser pulse durations at relativistic intensity

Abstract

The proton acceleration from a thin foil irradiated by a laser pulse at relativistic intensities is a process highly dependent on the electron dynamic at the rear side of the foil. By reducing the lateral size of the laser irradiated foil the hot electrons are confined in a small volume leading to an enhancement of both the maximum proton energy and the conversion efficiency in the target normal sheath acceleration regime. In this paper we demonstrate that an optimal lateral size of the target can be found. While a smaller target surface leads to a better hot electron confinement and enhances the Debye sheath accelerating the protons, it also leads to an increase of preplasma formation due to limited laser contrast available experimentally and hence to a decrease of the proton acceleration. The experimentally found optimum is in good agreement with analytic theory and 2D particle in cell simulations. In addition, the maximum proton energy as a function of pulse duration has been investigated. The experimental results fit to an analytical model.