Production of multiply charged ion beams with an energy of tens of MeV/nucleon by ultrahigh-power laser radiation for nuclear physics problems

Abstract

We report a comprehensive analysis of an earlier proposed method which employs ultrahigh-power (petawatt) circularly polarised laser radiation to generate multiply charged ion beams in its interaction with a nanostructured two-component target; the ion beams are intended for application in nuclear physics. The problems of heavy atom ionisation in a superstrong laser field and laser-induced acceleration of the resultant ions to energies of ∼20–30 MeV/nucleon are considered.