Generation of quasi-monoenergetic protons from thin multi-ion foils by a combination of laser radiation pressure acceleration and shielded Coulomb repulsion

Liu, Tung-Chang and Shao, Xi and Liu, Chuan-Sheng and He, Minqing and Eliasson, Bengt and Tripathi, Vipin and Su, Jao-Jang and Wang, Jyhpung and Chen, Shih-Hung (2013) Generation of quasi-monoenergetic protons from thin multi-ion foils by a combination of laser radiation pressure acceleration and shielded Coulomb repulsion. New Journal of Physics, 15. 025026. ISSN 1367-2630 (https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/15/2/025026)

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Abstract

We study theoretically and numerically the acceleration of protons by a combination of laser radiation pressure acceleration and Coulomb repulsion of carbon ions in a multi-ion thin foil made of carbon and hydrogen. The carbon layer helps to delay the proton layer from disruption due to the Rayleigh–Taylor instability, to maintain the quasi-monoenergetic proton layer and to accelerate it by the electron-shielded Coulomb repulsion for much longer duration than the acceleration time using single-ion hydrogen foils. Particle-in-cell simulations with a normalized peak laser amplitude of a_0 = 5 show a resulting quasi-monoenergetic proton energy of about 70 MeV with the foil made of 90% carbon and 10% hydrogen, in contrast to 10 MeV using a single-ion hydrogen foil. An analytical model is presented to explain quantitatively the proton energy evolution; this model is in agreement with the simulation results. The energy dependence of the quasi-monoenergetic proton beam on the concentration of carbon and hydrogen is also studied.

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