Year: 2012
Type: article
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 ~200 MeV proton beams with state-of-the-art 100 TW class laser systems.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Authors: F. Fiuza, A. Stockem, E. Boella, R. A. Fonseca, L. O. Silva, D. Haberberger, S. Tochitsky, C. Gong, W. B. Mori, C. Joshi
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Collaborative Research: Graduate Student Training Through Research on Plasma-Based Accelerators, FAST IGNITION OF FUSION TARGETS: A THEORETICAL AND NUMERICAL STUDY WITH AN EMPHASIS ON PROTON FAST IGNITION, A física de feixes relativistas intensos irrompendo através de plasmas: choques não colisionais em astrofísica e no laboratório, G8952488736
OpenAlex ID: W2108638337