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Enhanced proton beams from ultrathin targets driven by high contrast laser pulses

Neely, D. ; Foster, P. ; Robinson, A. ; Lindau, Filip LU ; Lundh, Olle LU ; Persson, Anders LU ; Wahlström, Claes-Göran LU and McKenna, P. (2006) In Applied Physics Letters 89(2).
Abstract
The generation of proton beams from ultrathin targets, down to 20 nm in thickness, driven with ultrahigh contrast laser pulses is explored. the conversion efficiency from laser energy into protons increases as the foil thickness is decreased, with good beam quality and high efficiencies of 1% being achieved, for protons with kinetic energy exceeding 0.9 MeV, for 100 nm thick aluminum foils at intensities of 10(19) W/cm(2) with 33 fs, 0.3 J pulses. To minimize amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) induced effects disrupting the acceleration mechanism, exceptional laser to ASE intensity contrasts of up to 1010 are achieved by introducing a plasma mirror to the high contrast 10 Hz multiterawatt laser at the Lund Laser Centre. It is shown that... (More)
The generation of proton beams from ultrathin targets, down to 20 nm in thickness, driven with ultrahigh contrast laser pulses is explored. the conversion efficiency from laser energy into protons increases as the foil thickness is decreased, with good beam quality and high efficiencies of 1% being achieved, for protons with kinetic energy exceeding 0.9 MeV, for 100 nm thick aluminum foils at intensities of 10(19) W/cm(2) with 33 fs, 0.3 J pulses. To minimize amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) induced effects disrupting the acceleration mechanism, exceptional laser to ASE intensity contrasts of up to 1010 are achieved by introducing a plasma mirror to the high contrast 10 Hz multiterawatt laser at the Lund Laser Centre. It is shown that for a given laser energy on target, regimes of higher laser-to-proton energy conversion efficiency. can be accessed with increasing contrast. The increasing efficiency as the target thickness decreases is closely correlated to an increasing proton temperature. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics. (Less)
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organization
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Applied Physics Letters
volume
89
issue
2
publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
external identifiers
  • wos:000239793100018
  • scopus:33746095791
ISSN
0003-6951
DOI
10.1063/1.2220011
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a7c3ba78-175f-423a-b5e3-9d89aeb27f96 (old id 397588)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:19:58
date last changed
2022-04-21 05:59:41
@article{a7c3ba78-175f-423a-b5e3-9d89aeb27f96,
  abstract     = {{The generation of proton beams from ultrathin targets, down to 20 nm in thickness, driven with ultrahigh contrast laser pulses is explored. the conversion efficiency from laser energy into protons increases as the foil thickness is decreased, with good beam quality and high efficiencies of 1% being achieved, for protons with kinetic energy exceeding 0.9 MeV, for 100 nm thick aluminum foils at intensities of 10(19) W/cm(2) with 33 fs, 0.3 J pulses. To minimize amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) induced effects disrupting the acceleration mechanism, exceptional laser to ASE intensity contrasts of up to 1010 are achieved by introducing a plasma mirror to the high contrast 10 Hz multiterawatt laser at the Lund Laser Centre. It is shown that for a given laser energy on target, regimes of higher laser-to-proton energy conversion efficiency. can be accessed with increasing contrast. The increasing efficiency as the target thickness decreases is closely correlated to an increasing proton temperature. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.}},
  author       = {{Neely, D. and Foster, P. and Robinson, A. and Lindau, Filip and Lundh, Olle and Persson, Anders and Wahlström, Claes-Göran and McKenna, P.}},
  issn         = {{0003-6951}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  publisher    = {{American Institute of Physics (AIP)}},
  series       = {{Applied Physics Letters}},
  title        = {{Enhanced proton beams from ultrathin targets driven by high contrast laser pulses}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/2880205/2425827.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1063/1.2220011}},
  volume       = {{89}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}