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Enhanced laser-driven proton acceleration using nanowire targets

Vallières, Simon ; Salvadori, Martina ; Permogorov, Alexander LU ; Cantono, Giada LU orcid ; Svendsen, Kristoffer LU ; Chen, Z. ; Sun, S. ; Consoli, Fabrizio ; d’Humières, E. and Wahlström, Claes-Göran LU , et al. (2021) In Scientific Reports 11.
Abstract
Laser-driven proton acceleration is a growing field of interest in the high-power laser community. One of the big challenges related to the most routinely used laser-driven ion acceleration mechanism, Target-Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA), is to enhance the laser-to-proton energy transfer such as to maximize the proton kinetic energy and number. A way to achieve this is using nanostructured target surfaces in the laser-matter interaction. In this paper, we show that nanowire structures can increase the maximum proton energy by a factor of two, triple the proton temperature and boost the proton numbers, in a campaign performed on the ultra-high contrast 10 TW laser at the Lund Laser Center (LLC). The optimal nanowire length, generating... (More)
Laser-driven proton acceleration is a growing field of interest in the high-power laser community. One of the big challenges related to the most routinely used laser-driven ion acceleration mechanism, Target-Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA), is to enhance the laser-to-proton energy transfer such as to maximize the proton kinetic energy and number. A way to achieve this is using nanostructured target surfaces in the laser-matter interaction. In this paper, we show that nanowire structures can increase the maximum proton energy by a factor of two, triple the proton temperature and boost the proton numbers, in a campaign performed on the ultra-high contrast 10 TW laser at the Lund Laser Center (LLC). The optimal nanowire length, generating maximum proton energies around 6 MeV, is around 1–2 μm. This nanowire length is sufficient to form well-defined highly-absorptive NW forests and short enough to minimize the energy loss of hot electrons going through the target bulk. Results are further supported by Particle-In-Cell simulations. Systematically analyzing nanowire length, diameter and gap size, we examine the underlying physical mechanisms that are provoking the enhancement of the longitudinal accelerating electric field. The parameter scan analysis shows that optimizing the spatial gap between the nanowires leads to larger enhancement than by the nanowire diameter and length, through increased electron heating. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Scientific Reports
volume
11
article number
2226
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:33500441
  • scopus:85099823442
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/s41598-020-80392-0
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
89332c62-e5f8-48e0-aa49-e69748de7747
date added to LUP
2021-09-06 17:03:39
date last changed
2024-03-08 16:59:57
@article{89332c62-e5f8-48e0-aa49-e69748de7747,
  abstract     = {{Laser-driven proton acceleration is a growing field of interest in the high-power laser community. One of the big challenges related to the most routinely used laser-driven ion acceleration mechanism, Target-Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA), is to enhance the laser-to-proton energy transfer such as to maximize the proton kinetic energy and number. A way to achieve this is using nanostructured target surfaces in the laser-matter interaction. In this paper, we show that nanowire structures can increase the maximum proton energy by a factor of two, triple the proton temperature and boost the proton numbers, in a campaign performed on the ultra-high contrast 10 TW laser at the Lund Laser Center (LLC). The optimal nanowire length, generating maximum proton energies around 6 MeV, is around 1–2 μm. This nanowire length is sufficient to form well-defined highly-absorptive NW forests and short enough to minimize the energy loss of hot electrons going through the target bulk. Results are further supported by Particle-In-Cell simulations. Systematically analyzing nanowire length, diameter and gap size, we examine the underlying physical mechanisms that are provoking the enhancement of the longitudinal accelerating electric field. The parameter scan analysis shows that optimizing the spatial gap between the nanowires leads to larger enhancement than by the nanowire diameter and length, through increased electron heating.}},
  author       = {{Vallières, Simon and Salvadori, Martina and Permogorov, Alexander and Cantono, Giada and Svendsen, Kristoffer and Chen, Z. and Sun, S. and Consoli, Fabrizio and d’Humières, E. and Wahlström, Claes-Göran and Antici, Patrizio}},
  issn         = {{2045-2322}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{01}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Scientific Reports}},
  title        = {{Enhanced laser-driven proton acceleration using nanowire targets}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80392-0}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41598-020-80392-0}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}