Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Research › peer-review
Microstructured snow targets for high energy quasi-monoenergetic proton acceleration. / Schleifer, E.; Nahum, E.; Eisenmann, S.; Botton, M.; Baspaly, A.; Pomerantz, I.; Abricht, F.; Branzel, J.; Priebe, G.; Steinke, S.; Andreev, A.; Schnuerer, M.; Sander, W.; Gordon, D.; Sprangle, P.; Ledingham, K. W.D.; Zigler, A.
Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions II; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles II; and Harnessing Relativistic Plasma Waves III. 2013. 87791M (Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering; Vol. 8779).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Research › peer-review
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TY - GEN
T1 - Microstructured snow targets for high energy quasi-monoenergetic proton acceleration
AU - Schleifer, E.
AU - Nahum, E.
AU - Eisenmann, S.
AU - Botton, M.
AU - Baspaly, A.
AU - Pomerantz, I.
AU - Abricht, F.
AU - Branzel, J.
AU - Priebe, G.
AU - Steinke, S.
AU - Andreev, A.
AU - Schnuerer, M.
AU - Sander, W.
AU - Gordon, D.
AU - Sprangle, P.
AU - Ledingham, K. W.D.
AU - Zigler, A.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - High intensity laser
KW - Laser acceleration
KW - Laser beams
KW - Proton beams
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84880758415&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1117/12.2019661
DO - 10.1117/12.2019661
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84880758415
SN - 9780819495815
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions II; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles II; and Harnessing Relativistic Plasma Waves III
T2 - Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions II; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Beams of Particles II; and Harnessing Relativistic Plasma Waves III
Y2 - 15 April 2013 through 18 April 2013
ER -
ID: 85660653