Super-Heavy Ions Acceleration Driven by Ultrashort Laser Pulses at Ultrahigh Intensity

The acceleration of super-heavy ions (SHIs, mass number of about 200) from plasmas driven by ultrashort (tens of femtoseconds) laser pulses is a challenging topic awaiting a breakthrough. Detecting and controlling the ionization process and adopting the optimal acceleration scheme are crucial for th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. X 2021-06, Vol.11 (2), p.021049, Article 021049
Main Authors: Wang, Pengjie, Gong, Zheng, Lee, Seong Geun, Shou, Yinren, Geng, Yixing, Jeon, Cheonha, Kim, I Jong, Lee, Hwang Woon, Yoon, Jin Woo, Sung, Jae Hee, Lee, Seong Ku, Kong, Defeng, Liu, Jianbo, Mei, Zhusong, Cao, Zhengxuan, Pan, Zhuo, Choi, Il Woo, Yan, Xueqing, Nam, Chang Hee, Ma, Wenjun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astrophysics
Atomic properties
Carbon nanotubes
Damage detection
Decay rate
Density
Electric fields
Energy
Energy spectra
Gold
Heavy ions
Ion beams
Ionization
Ions
Lasers
Metal foils
Nuclear astrophysics
Particle acceleration
Particle in cell technique
Plasmas (physics)
Pulse duration
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The acceleration of super-heavy ions (SHIs, mass number of about 200) from plasmas driven by ultrashort (tens of femtoseconds) laser pulses is a challenging topic awaiting a breakthrough. Detecting and controlling the ionization process and adopting the optimal acceleration scheme are crucial for the generation of highly energetic SHIs. Here, we report the experimental results on the generation of deeply ionized super-heavy ions (Au) with unprecedented energy of 1.2 GeV utilizing ultrathin targets and ultrashort laser pulses at an intensity of1022W/cm2. A novel self-calibrated diagnostic method was developed to acquire the absolute energy spectra and charge-state distributions of Au ions abundant at the charge state of51+and extending to61+. The measured charge-state distributions supported by 2D particle-in-cell simulations serve as an additional tool to inspect the ionization dynamics associated with SHI acceleration, revealing that the laser intensity is the crucial parameter over the pulse duration for Au acceleration. Achieving a long acceleration time without sacrificing the strength of the acceleration field by utilizing composite targets can substantially increase the maximum energy of Au ions.
ISSN:2160-3308
2160-3308
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevX.11.021049