Published March 6, 2009 | Version v1
Journal article

Laser-Driven Shock Acceleration of Ion Beams from Spherical Mass-Limited Targets

  • 1. Department fuer Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen, Garching (Germany)
  • 2. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Quantenoptik, Garching (Germany)
  • 3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN (United Kingdom)
  • 4. Moscow Physics Engineering Institute, Kashirskoe shosse 31, Moscow (Russian Federation)
  • 5. ETSI Aeronauticos, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain)
  • 6. Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom)

Description

We report on experimental studies of ion acceleration from spherical targets of diameter 15 μm irradiated by ultraintense (1x1020 W/cm2) pulses from a 20-TW Ti:sapphire laser system. A highly directed proton beam with plateau-shaped spectrum extending to energies up to 8 MeV is observed in the laser propagation direction. This beam arises from acceleration in a converging shock launched by the laser, which is confirmed by 3-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The temporal evolution of the shock-front curvature shows excellent agreement with a two-dimensional radiation pressure model

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
102
Journal Issue
9
Journal Page Range
p. 095002-095002.4
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTAO

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2009 The American Physical Society