Laser-Driven Shock Acceleration of Monoenergetic Ion Beams

F. Fiuza, A. Stockem, E. Boella, R. A. Fonseca, L. O. Silva, D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, C. Gong, W. B. Mori, and C. Joshi
Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 215001 – Published 20 November 2012

Abstract

We show that monoenergetic ion beams can be accelerated by moderate Mach number collisionless, electrostatic shocks propagating in a long scale-length exponentially decaying plasma profile. Strong plasma heating and density steepening produced by an intense laser pulse near the critical density can launch such shocks that propagate in the extended plasma at high velocities. The generation of a monoenergetic ion beam is possible due to the small and constant sheath electric field associated with the slowly decreasing density profile. The conditions for the acceleration of high-quality, energetic ion beams are identified through theory and multidimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The scaling of the ion energy with laser intensity shows that it is possible to generate 200MeV proton beams with state-of-the-art 100 TW class laser systems.

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  • Received 30 April 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.215001

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

F. Fiuza*, A. Stockem, E. Boella, R. A. Fonseca, and L. O. Silva

  • GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear—Laboratório Associado, Instituto Superior Técnico, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal

D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, C. Gong, W. B. Mori, and C. Joshi

  • Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

  • *frederico.fiuza@ist.utl.pt
  • Also at DCTI/ISCTE Instituto Universitario de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal.
  • luis.silva@ist.utl.pt

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Issue

Vol. 109, Iss. 21 — 21 November 2012

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