Related papers: Proton Acceleration in a Laser-induced Relativisti…
In simulations of a 10PW laser striking a solid we demonstrate the possibility of producing a pure electron-positron plasma by the same processes as those thought to operate in high-energy astrophysical environments. A maximum positron…
A new scheme of proton acceleration from a laser-driven near-critical-density plasma is proposed. Plasma with a tailored density profile allows a two-stage acceleration of protons. The protons are pre-accelerated in the laser-driven…
A two-phase model, where the plasma expansion is an isothermal one when laser irradiates and a following adiabatic one after laser ends, has been proposed to predict the maximum energy of the proton beams induced in the ultra-intense…
A new regime is described for Radiation Pressure Acceleration of a thin foil by an intense laser beam of above 10^20 W/cm^2. Highly monoenergetic proton beams extending to GeV energies can be produced with very high efficiency using…
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…
This paper describes the first experimental demonstration of the guiding of a relativistic electron beam in a solid target using two co-linear, relativistically intense, picosecond laser pulses. The first pulse creates a magnetic field…
Proton acceleration by high-intensity laser pulses from ultra-thin foils for hadron therapy is discussed. With the improvement of the laser intensity contrast ratio to 10-11 achieved on Hercules laser at the University of Michigan, it…
We investigate the effect of density down-ramps on the acceleration of ions via Magnetic Vortex Acceleration (MVA) in a near-critical density gas target by means of particle-in-cell simulations. The spin-polarization of the accelerated…
We present a setup for highly polarized proton beams using two parallel propagating laser pulses that have a carrier envelope phase difference of $\pi$. This mechanism is examined utilizing particle-in-cell simulations and compared to a…
Understanding the target dynamics during its interaction with a relativistic ultrashort laser pulse is a challenging fundamental multi-physics problem involving at least atomic and solid-state physics, plasma physics, and laser physics.…
We study proton acceleration from a foil target with a transversely varying density using multi-dimensional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations. In order to reduce electron heating and deformation of the target, circularly polarized Gaussian…
We demonstrate a scheme for enhanced proton acceleration from near-critical-density targets by splitting a laser pulse into a linearly and a circularly polarized laser pulse. The combination of two laser pulses generates a shock wave as…
An effective scheme of synchronized laser-triggered ion acceleration and the corresponding theoretical model are proposed for a slow light pulse of relativistic intensity, which penetrates into a near-critical-density plasma, strongly…
Laser-plasma proton acceleration was investigated in the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) regime using a novel gas-foil target. The target is designed for reaching higher laser intensity at the foil plane owing to relativistic…
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 measure the emission of energetic electrons from the interaction between ultrashort laser pulses and a solid density plasma in the relativistic regime. We detect an electron beam that only appears with few-cycle pulses (< 10 fs) and…
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…
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…
A 2D particle simulation models the collision of two electron-ion plasma clouds along a quasi-parallel magnetic field. The collision speed is 0.9c and the density ratio 10. A current sheet forms at the front of the dense cloud, in which the…
The results from 2.5-dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations for the interaction of a picosecond-long ignition laser pulse with a plasma pellet of 50-$\mu m$ diameter and 40 critical density are presented. The high density pellet is…