The Effect of the Laser Light Polarization on the Generation of Proton Ignitor Beam

Abstract

In this study, the effect of laser light polarization (linear polarization (LP) and circular polarization (CP)) on the shape of the proton energy spectrum and its energy cut-off is explored. The obtained results from 1D3V PIC simulation showed that two different acceleration mechanisms including target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) and radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) are dominant. It is found that for the amplitude of a = 27 and pulse duration 333 fs when the laser polarization is changed from LP to CP, the electron heating is reduced which caused the generation of the multi-peak quasi-monoenergetic proton beam. Then by applying the 1D3T hydrodynamic code, the potential of the aforementioned proton beam with a high peak energy 510 MeV to irradiation on pre-compressed DT capsule was examined. Finally, the proton ignition energy threshold at a distance of 0.78 cm between the proton source and pre-compressed DT fuel capsule was investigated. (The threshold proton ignition energy is 15.52 kJ)