Related papers: Topological approach for laser acceleration invest…
The laser-driven acceleration of high quality proton beams from a double-layer target, comprised of a high-Z ion layer and a thin disk of hydrogen, is investigated with three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations in the case of oblique…
Ionization is a fundamental process in intense laser-matter interactions, and is known to cause plasma defocusing and intensity clamping. Here, we investigate theoretically the propagation dynamics of an intense laser pulse in a helium gas…
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…
How fast can a laser pulse ionize an atom? We address this question by considering pulses that carry a fixed time-integrated energy per-area, and finding those that achieve the double requirement of maximizing the ionization that they…
Laser-driven ion accelerators have the advantages of compact size, high density, and short bunch duration over conventional accelerators. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to simultaneously enhance the yield and quality of laser-driven…
We propose new nanotargets as nano-layered flat-top cone targets to be used for future laser-ion acceleration experiments at ELI-NP. We study their behaviour at the interaction with an ultra-high intensity laser pulse by performing…
Experimental results, supported by precise modelling, demonstrate optimisation of a plasma-based injector with intermediate laser pulse energy ($<1$ J), corresponding to a normalised vector potential $a_0 = 2.15$, using ionisation injection…
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…
We demonstrate generation of 10-20 MeV/u ions with a compact 4 TW laser using a gas target mixed with submicron clusters, corresponding to tenfold increase in the ion energies compared to previous experiments with solid targets. It is…
We present the experimental results on ion acceleration by petawatt femtosecond laser solid interaction and explore strategies to enhance ion energy. The irradiation of micrometer thick (0.2 - 6.0 micron) Al foils with a virtually…
We demonstrate an ion acceleration scheme capable of simultaneously focusing and accelerating a multispecies ion beam with monoenergetic spectra to a few micron radius. The focal length and ion mean energy can be independently controlled:…
This work concerns a structural topology optimisation problem for 4D printing based on the phase field approach. The concept of 4D printing as a targeted evolution of 3D printed structures can be realised in a two-step process. One first…
We present the process of ion acceleration using ultra-thin foils irradiated by elliptically polarized, high-intensity laser pulses. Recently, efficient generation of monoenergetic ion beams was introduced using the concept of laser-ion…
When the ions are accelerated by the radiation pressure of the laser pulse, their velocity can not exceed the laser group velocity, in the case when it is less than the speed of light in vacuum. This is demonstrated in two cases…
Exploring new target schemes for laser wakefield accelerators is essential to meet the challenge of increasing repetition rates while ensuring stability and quality of the produced electron beams. The prototyping of a two-chamber gas cell…
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…
There currently exists a number of different schemes for laser based ion acceleration in the literature. Some of these schemes are also partly overlapping, making a clear distinction between the schemes difficult in certain parameter…
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…
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…
The dynamics of the acceleration of ultrathin foil targets by the radiation pressure of superintense, circularly polarized laser pulses is investigated by analytical modeling and particle-in-cell simulations. By addressing self-induced…