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Efficient laser-plasma acceleration of protons via near-critical mass limited targets

Johannes Gebhard1,*, Peter Hilz3,4, Felix Balling1, Joey Kalis1, Martin Speicher1, Leonard Doyle1, Alexander Sävert3,2,4, Georg Schäfer3,4, Pooyan Khademi3,4 et al.

Bin Liu3,4, Matt Zepf2,3,4, and Jörg Schreiber1,†

  • *Contact author: johannes.gebhard@physik.uni-muenchen.de
  • †Contact author: joerg.schreiber@lmu.de
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Phys. Rev. E 112, 035204 – Published 9 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/z7y1-1zbz

Abstract

Isolated micro-targets are a promising avenue to high-performance laser-driven proton and ion accelerators due to their ability to confine the coupled laser energy to a small volume and small number of particles. Experimental results on proton emission from levitated plastic micro-spheres with an initial diameter of 1 µm are presented. For a laser with only 0.4 J contained within the central spot, proton energies of up to 27 MeV were observed with micro-spheres pre-expanded to near-critical density. Three-dimensional PIC simulations reveal that the combination of a ponderomotively driven process similar to radiation pressure ‘hole-boring’ generates a dense plasma bunch propagating at 0.1 c with the subsequent expansion of the moving bunch driven by hot electrons boosting the maximum proton energy Emax considerably. Simulations agree well with the observed experimental results and suggest a scaling of 54MeV/J1/2, predicting that 100 MeV protons are possible with only 4 J in a Gaussian spot.

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Phys. Rev. E 112, 035204– Published 9 September, 2025
  • Received 28 August 2024
  • Revised 22 April 2025
  • Accepted 1 July 2025
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