Synchronous post-acceleration of laser-driven protons in helical coil targets by controlling the current dispersion
Abstract
Post-acceleration of protons in helical coil targets driven by intense, ultrashort laser pulses can enhance the ion energy by utilizing the transient current originating from the self-discharging of the targets. The acceleration length of the protons can exceed a few millimeters, and the accelerating gradient is in the order of GeV/m. How to ensure the synchronization of the accelerating electric field with the protons is a crucial problem for an efficient post-acceleration. In this paper, we study how the electric field mismatch induced by the current dispersion affects the synchronous acceleration of the protons. We propose a scheme using a two-stage helical coil to control the current dispersion. With optimized parameters, the energy gain of protons is enhanced by 4 times. And it is expected that the proton energy would reach 45 MeV using a hundreds-terawatt laser, or over 100 MeV using a petawatt laser, by controlling the current dispersion.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2212.04144,
title = {Synchronous post-acceleration of laser-driven protons in helical coil targets by controlling the current dispersion},
author = {Zhipeng Liu and Zhusong Mei and Defeng Kong and Zhuo Pan and Shirui Xu and Ying Gao and Yinren Shou and Pengjie Wang and Zhengxuan Cao and Yulan Liang and Ziyang Peng and Jiarui Zhao and Shiyou Chen and Tan Song and Xun Chen and Tianqi Xu and Xueqing Yan and Wenjun Ma},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2212.04144},
year = {2022}
}