DOI

  • E. Schleifer
  • E. Nahum
  • S. Eisenmann
  • M. Botton
  • A. Baspaly
  • I. Pomerantz
  • F. Abricht
  • J. Branzel
  • G. Priebe
  • S. Steinke
  • A. Andreev
  • M. Schnuerer
  • W. Sander
  • D. Gordon
  • P. Sprangle
  • K. W.D. Ledingham
  • A. Zigler

Compact size sources of high energy protons (50-200MeV) are expected to be key technology in a wide range of scientific applications 1-8. One promising approach is the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) scheme 9,10, holding record level of 67MeV protons generated by a peta-Watt laser 11. In general, laser intensity exceeding 1018 W/cm2 is required to produce MeV level protons. Another approach is the Break-Out Afterburner (BOA) scheme which is a more efficient acceleration scheme but requires an extremely clean pulse with contrast ratio of above 10-10. Increasing the energy of the accelerated protons using modest energy laser sources is a very attractive task nowadays. Recently, nano-scale targets were used to accelerate ions 12,13 but no significant enhancement of the accelerated proton energy was measured. Here we report on the generation of up to 20MeV by a modest (5TW) laser system interacting with a microstructured snow target deposited on a Sapphire substrate. This scheme relax also the requirement of high contrast ratio between the pulse and the pre-pulse, where the latter produces the highly structured plasma essential for the interaction process. The plasma near the tip of the snow target is subject to locally enhanced laser intensity with high spatial gradients, and enhanced charge separation is obtained. Electrostatic fields of extremely high intensities are produced, and protons are accelerated to MeV-level energies. PIC simulations of this targets reproduce the experimentally measured energy scaling and predict the generation of 150 MeV protons from laser power of 100TW laser system18.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLaser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions II; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles II; and Harnessing Relativistic Plasma Waves III
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
EventLaser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions II; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles II; and Harnessing Relativistic Plasma Waves III - Prague, Czech Republic
Duration: 15 Apr 201318 Apr 2013

Publication series

NameProceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
Volume8779
ISSN (Print)0277-786X
ISSN (Electronic)1996-756X

Conference

ConferenceLaser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions II; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles II; and Harnessing Relativistic Plasma Waves III
Country/TerritoryCzech Republic
CityPrague
Period15/04/1318/04/13

    Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

    Research areas

  • High intensity laser, Laser acceleration, Laser beams, Proton beams

ID: 85660653