• S. Ter-Avetisyan
  • M. Schnürer
  • P. V. Nickles
  • M. Kalashnikov
  • E. Risse
  • T. Sokollik
  • W. Sandner
  • A. Andreev
  • V. Tikhonchuk

We report on the generation and laser acceleration of bunches of energetic deuterons with a small energy spread at about 2 MeV. This quasimonoenergetic peak within the ion energy spectrum was observed when heavy-water microdroplets were irradiated with ultrashort laser pulses of about 40 fs duration and high (10-8) temporal contrast, at an intensity of 1019W/cm2. The results can be explained by a simple physical model related to spatial separation of two ion species within a finite-volume target. The production of quasimonoenergetic ions is a long-standing goal in laser-particle acceleration; it could have diverse applications such as in medicine or in the development of future compact ion accelerators.

Original languageEnglish
Article number145006
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume96
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006

    Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

ID: 85668817