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  • Letter
  • Open Access

All-optical method for generating transient microstructured targets in laser ion acceleration

Ying Gao1,2,*,†, Pengjie Wang1,*,‡, Bin Liu3,4,*, Shirui Xu1, Shiyou Chen1, Yinren Shou1, Jianbo Liu1, Zhusong Mei1, Zhengxuan Cao1 et al.

Tianqi Xu1, Zhipeng Liu1, Zhuo Pan1, Defeng Kong1, Ziyang Peng1, Yulan Liang1, Tan Song1, Xun Chen1, Qingfan Wu1, Yujia Zhang1, Jiarui Zhao1, Wei Qi5, Zhigang Deng5, Yanying Zhao1, Fuyuan Wu6, Matt Zepf4, Rafael Ramis6, Paul R. Bolton2, Xueqing Yan1,7, Wenjun Ma1,§, and Jörg Schreiber2,∥

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: ying_gao@pku.edu.cn
  • ‡Present address: Institute of Radiation Physics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany.
  • §Contact author: wenjun.ma@pku.edu.cn
  • ∥Contact author: joerg.schreiber@lmu.de
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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L042031 – Published 31 October, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L042031

Abstract

We demonstrate an all-optical method that online produces “microstructured” targets by manipulating a Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) prepulse. Besides the enhancement of the proton number, the cutoff energy is nearly doubled. Such transient “microstructured” targets are characterized using both offline and online approaches. Based on probe experiments and hydrodynamic simulations, we develop a simple model to describe the electron density distribution upon the arrival of the main pulse. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that the annular plasma acts as an oscillating cavity for hot electrons and results in a cascaded acceleration effect. The combination of low-intensity LG prepulses and ultraintense Gaussian pulses opens another avenue for fine-tuning laser-plasma interactions spatiotemporally in interdisciplinary applications.

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L042031– Published 31 October, 2024
  • Received 10 July 2020
  • Revised 19 March 2024
  • Accepted 23 September 2024
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