Related papers: Efficient ion acceleration by collective laser-dri…
The interaction of micro- and nano-structured target surfaces with high-power laser pulses is being widely investigated for its unprecedented absorption efficiency. We have developed vertically aligned metallic micro-pillar arrays for…
Experiments were performed to study electron acceleration by intense sub-picosecond laser pulses propagating in sub-mm long plasmas of near critical electron density (NCD). Low density foam layers of 300-500 um thickness were used as…
In laser-solid interactions, electrons may be generated and subsequently accelerated to energies of the order-of-magnitude of the ponderomotive limit, with the underlying process dominated by direct laser acceleration. Breaking this limit,…
In the ion acceleration by radiation pressure a transverse inhomogeneity of the electromagnetic pulse results in the displacement of the irradiated target in the off-axis direction limiting achievable ion energy. This effect is described…
We consider the Directed Coulomb Explosion regime of ion acceleration from ultra-thin double layer (high Z/low Z) mass limited targets. In this regime the laser pulse evacuated the electrons from the irradiated spot and accelerates the…
Laser-driven ions have compelling properties and their potential use for medical applications has attracted a huge global interest. One of the major challenges of these applications is generating beams of the required energies. To date,…
We investigate the target normal sheath acceleration of protons in thin aluminum targets irradiated at relativistic intensity by two time-separated ultrashort (35 fs) laser pulses. For identical laser pulses and target thicknesses of 3 and…
We report on experimental studies of divergence of proton beams from nanometer thick diamond-like carbon (DLC) foils irradiated by an intense laser with high contrast. Proton beams with extremely small divergence (half angle) of 2 degree…
The generation of compact, high-energy ion beams is one of the most promising applications of intense laser-matter interactions, but the control of the beam spectral quality remains an outstanding challenge. We show that in radiation…
A new electron acceleration mechanism is identified that develops when a relativistically intense laser irradiates the wedge of an over-dense plasma. This induces a diffracted electromagnetic wave with a significant longitudinal electric…
Laser-solid interaction can lead to the acceleration of protons to tens of MeV. Here, we show that a strong enhancement of this acceleration can be achieved by splitting the laser pulse to two parts of equal energy and opposite incidence…
The interaction of ultra-intense lasers with solid foils can be used to accelerate ions to high energies well exceeding 60 MeV. The non-linear relativistic motion of electrons in the intense laser radiation leads to their acceleration and…
In the past two decades, laser-accelerated ion sources and their applications have been intensely researched. Recently, it has been shown through experiments that proton beams with characteristics comparable to those obtained with solid…
We have investigated proton acceleration in the forward direction from a near-critical density hydrogen gas jet target irradiated by a high intensity (10^18 W/cm^2), short-pulse (5 ps) laser with wavelength of 1.054 micron. We observe the…
Ion beam has been used in cancer treatment, and has a unique preferable feature to deposit its main energy inside a human body so that cancer cell could be killed by the ion beam. However, conventional ion accelerator tends to be huge in…
A scenario for the enhanced laser-driven ion acceleration from a thin solid target at high laser intensity is considered, where the target is enclosed in a reflecting cavity. The laser pulse reflected from the target is redirected towards…
Ion acceleration due to the interaction between a short high-intensity laser pulse and a moderately overdense plasma target is studied using Eulerian Vlasov-Maxwell simulations. The effects of variations in the plasma density profile and…
Ion acceleration from gaseous targets driven by relativistic-intensity lasers was demonstrated as early as the late 90s, yet most of the experiments conducted to date have involved picosecond-duration, Nd:glass lasers operating at low…
We present a parametric study based on 1-D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations conducted with the objective of understanding the interaction of intense lasers with near-critical non-uniform density gas targets. Specifically, we aim to find…
Generation of quasi-monoenergetic ion pulse by laser-driven acceleration is one of the hot topics in laser plasma physics. In this study, we present a new method for the \textit{In-situ} deposition of an ultra-thin D$_2$O layer on the…