1. Enhanced Laser-Driven Ion Acceleration in the Relativistic Transparency Regime
- Author
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Jörg Schreiber, Brian J. Albright, Juan C. Fernández, Sergey Rykovanov, Samuel A. Letzring, A. Henig, Bjorn Hegelich, Hui-Chun Wu, K. Markey, Donald C. Gautier, Daniel Kiefer, D. Habs, Randall P. Johnson, Lin Yin, Matthew Zepf, V.Kh. Liechtenstein, T. Shimada, Kirk Flippo, Kevin J. Bowers, and Daniel Jung
- Subjects
Physics ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Acceleration (differential geometry) ,Physics and Astronomy(all) ,Ion acceleration ,Laser ,Ion ,law.invention ,law ,Ionization ,Irradiation ,Atomic physics ,Electron population ,Energy (signal processing) - Abstract
We report on the acceleration of ion beams from ultrathin diamondlike carbon foils of thickness 50, 30, and 10 nm irradiated by ultrahigh contrast laser pulses at intensities of $\ensuremath{\sim}7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{19}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$. An unprecedented maximum energy of 185 MeV ($15\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}/\mathrm{u}$) for fully ionized carbon atoms is observed at the optimum thickness of 30 nm. The enhanced acceleration is attributed to self-induced transparency, leading to strong volumetric heating of the classically overdense electron population in the bulk of the target. Our experimental results are supported by both particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations and an analytical model.
- Published
- 2009