Related papers: Efficient proton acceleration from laser-driven cr…
We show that when a solid plasma foil with a density gradient on the front surface is irradiated by an intense laser pulse at a grazing angle, around 80 degrees, a relativistic electron vortex is excited in the near-critical-density layer…
Experiments on ion acceleration by irradiation of ultra-thin diamond-like carbon (DLC) foils, with thicknesses well below the skin depth, irradiated with laser pulses of ultra-high contrast and linear polarization, are presented. A maximum…
Due to their high cost of acquisition and operation, there are still a limited number of high-yield, high-flux neutron source facilities worldwide. In this context, laser-driven neutron sources offer a promising, cheaper alternative to…
We compare the transport properties of a well-characterized hydrogen plasma for low and high current ion beams. The energy-loss of low current beams can be well understood, within the framework of current stopping power models. However, for…
Ion acceleration in the MeV range can be routinely achieved with table-top laser technology. One of the current challenges is to improve the energy coupling from the laser to the proton beam without increasing the laser peak power.…
Laser-plasma accelerators produce electric fields of the order of 100 GV/m, more than 1000 times larger than radio-frequency accelerators. Thanks to this unique field strength, they appear as a promising path to generate electron beams…
The interaction of high intensity laser radiation with mass-limited target exhibits significant enhancement of the ion acceleration when the target is surrounded by an underdense plasma corona, as seen in numerical simulations. The…
The advent of high-intensity pulsed laser technology enables the generation of extreme states of matter under conditions that are far from thermal equilibrium. This in turn could enable different approaches to generating energy from nuclear…
We investigate the different facets of ion acceleration by a relativistically intense circularly polarized laser pulse interacting with thin near-critical density plasma targets. Our simulations establish that plasma density gradient and…
We present a novel laser based ion acceleration scheme, where a petawatt circularly polarized laser pulse is shot on an ultra-thin (nano-scale) double-layer target. Our scheme allows the production of high-quality light ion beams with both…
Liquid leaf targets show promise as high repetition rate targets for laser-based ion acceleration using the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) mechanism and are currently under development. In this work, we discuss the effects of…
The excitation of surface plasmons with ultra-intense ($I\sim 5\times 10^{19}$ W/cm$^2$), high contrast ($\sim 10^{12}$) laser pulses on periodically-modulated solid targets has been recently demonstrated to produce collimated bunches of…
Laser plasma interaction with micro-engineered targets at relativistic intensities has been greatly promoted by recent progress in the high contrast lasers and the manufacture of advanced micro- and nano-structures. This opens new…
The influence of laser frequency on laser-driven ion acceleration is investigated by means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. When ultrashort intense laser pulse at higher harmonic frequency irradiates a thin solid foil, the…
We report on the successful demonstration of selective acceleration of deuterium ions by target-normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) with a high-energy petawatt laser. TNSA typically produces a multi-species ion beam that originates from the…
An experimental study of laser driven electron acceleration in N2 and N2-He mixed gas-jet target using laser pulses of duration ~60-70 fs is presented. Generation of relativistic electron beam with quasi-thermal spectra was observed at a…
Aneutronic and nonradioactive properties make the proton-boron fusion a prospective candidate for fusion energy production through reactions following p+$^{11}$B$\rightarrow$3${\alpha}$ (p-$^{11}$B). However, it is difficult to achieve a…
Direct laser acceleration has proven to be an efficient source of high-charge electron bunches and high brilliance X-rays. However, an analytical description of the acceleration in the interaction with varying plasma density targets is…
Intense laser-plasma interactions are an essential tool for the laboratory study of ion acceleration at a collisionless shock. With two-dimensional particle-in-cell calculations of a multicomponent plasma we observe two electrostatic…
We report on the generation of impurity-free proton beams from an overdense gas jet driven by a near-infrared laser ($\lambda_L=1.053$ $\mathrm{\mu} m$). The gas profile was shaped prior to the interaction using a controlled prepulse.…