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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Efficient ion acceleration by multistaged intense short laser pulses

J. Kim1,*, S. Wilks2, A. Kemp2, M. Sherlock2, T. Ma2, F. Beg1, and D. Mariscal2

  • 1Center for Energy Research, University of California, San Diego, 92093 California, USA
  • 2Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, 94550 California, USA

  • *jok035@ucsd.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L032003 – Published 6 July, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L032003

Abstract

We present a computational study of laser-driven ion acceleration that optimizes a combination of target transparency and extended field acceleration at moderate relativistic intensity. Our scheme applies two sequential laser pulses irradiating a thin target foil along the same direction: The first pulse drives a rapid expansion of the target, while the second one drives a quasistatic electric field in the expanding target with increasing electron temperature. In our particle-in-cell simulations we observe proton peak energies and numbers enhanced by factors of up to 3 compared with regular target-normal sheath acceleration.

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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L032003– Published 6 July, 2022
  • Received 6 October 2020
  • Accepted 4 May 2022
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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.

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