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Break-out afterburner ion acceleration in the longer laser pulse length regime

Authors :
A. Henig
Brian J. Albright
Sasikumar Palaniyappan
Kevin J. Bowers
Daniel Jung
J.C. Fern '{a}ndez
Lin Yin
R. C. Shah
Bjorn Hegelich
Source :
Physics of Plasmas. 18:063103
Publication Year :
2011
Publisher :
AIP Publishing, 2011.

Abstract

Kinetic simulations of break-out-afterburner (BOA) ion acceleration from nm-scale targets are examined in a longer pulse length regime than studied previously. It is shown that when the target becomes relativistically transparent to the laser, an epoch of dramatic acceleration of ions occurs that lasts until the electron density in the expanding target reduces to the critical density in the non-relativistic limit. For given laser parameters, the optimal target thickness yielding the highest maximum ion energy is one in which this time window for ion acceleration overlaps with the intensity peak of the laser pulse. A simple analytic model of relativistically induced transparency is presented for plasma expansion at the time-evolving sound speed, from which these times may be estimated. The maximum ion energy attainable is controlled by the finite acceleration volume and time over which the BOA acts.

Details

ISSN :
10897674 and 1070664X
Volume :
18
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Physics of Plasmas
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........9fabe6d7753bb5998292abc432947a49