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Effects of front surface plasma expansion on proton acceleration in ultraintense laser irradiation of foil targets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2008

P. McKenna ,
D.C. Carroll ,
O. Lundh ,
F. Nürnberg ,
K. Markey ,
S. Bandyopadhyay ,
D. Batani ,
R.G. Evans ,
R. Jafer  and
S. Kar
...Show all authors
P. McKenna*
Affiliation:
SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
D.C. Carroll
Affiliation:
SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
O. Lundh
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
F. Nürnberg
Affiliation:
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Institut für Kernphysik, Darmstadt, Germany
K. Markey
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
S. Bandyopadhyay
Affiliation:
STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom
D. Batani
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano Bicocca, Milano, Italy
R.G. Evans
Affiliation:
The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom
R. Jafer
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano Bicocca, Milano, Italy
S. Kar
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
D. Neely
Affiliation:
STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom
D. Pepler
Affiliation:
STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, United Kingdom
M.N. Quinn
Affiliation:
SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
R. Redaelli
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano Bicocca, Milano, Italy
M. Roth
Affiliation:
Technische Universität Darmstadt, Institut für Kernphysik, Darmstadt, Germany
C.-G. Wahlström
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
X.H. Yuan
Affiliation:
SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
M. Zepf
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Paul McKenna, SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0NG, United Kingdom. E-mail: p.mckenna@phys.strath.ac.uk
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Abstract

The properties of beams of high energy protons accelerated during ultraintense, picosecond laser-irradiation of thin foil targets are investigated as a function of preplasma expansion at the target front surface. Significant enhancement in the maximum proton energy and laser-to-proton energy conversion efficiency is observed at optimum preplasma density gradients, due to self-focusing of the incident laser pulse. For very long preplasma expansion, the propagating laser pulse is observed to filament, resulting in highly uniform proton beams, but with reduced flux and maximum energy.

Keywords

Laser-plasma interactionLaser-proton accelerationPlasma expansion
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 591 - 596
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

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