Abstract
Synchronized proton acceleration by ultraintense slow light (SASL) in low-density targets has been studied in application to fabricated carbon nanotube films. Proton acceleration from low-density plasma films irradiated by a linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulse of ultrarelativistic intensity was considered as result of both target surface natural contamination by hydrocarbons and artificial volumetric doping of low-density carbon nanotube films. The 3D particle-in-cell simulations confirm the SASL concept [A. V. Brantov et al., Synchronized Ion Acceleration by Ultraintense Slow Light, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 085004 (2016)] for proton acceleration by a femtosecond petawatt-class laser pulse from realistic low-density targets with a hydrogen impurity, quantify the characteristics of the accelerated protons, and demonstrate a significant increase of their energy compared with the proton energy generated from contaminated ultrathin solid dense foils.
- Received 5 October 2016
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.20.061301
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society