The effect of laser light polarization on properties of proton and carbon ion beams generated from a CH target irradiated by a 130 fs laser pulse of ultra-relativistic intensity (∼1022–1023 W/cm2) is investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that only circular light polarization ensures the production of quasi-monoenergetic relativistic beams of both protons and carbon ions from such a target while using the linear one results in the generation of quasi-monoenergetic protons accompanied with carbon ions of complex and broad energy spectrum. The influence of the target thickness and laser intensity on the ion energy spectrum and the laser-ions energy conversion efficiency is examined.