Laser Radiation Pressure Acceleration of Monoenergetic Protons in an Ultra-Thin Foil

• Main Authors: Eliasson, Bengt, Department of Physics, Umeaa University, SE-90 187 Umeaa, Liu, Chuan S., Shao Xi, Sagdeev, Roald Z., Shukla, Padma K., Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 ONG
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: 70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; ABLATION; ACCELERATION; BEAM PRODUCTION; BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS; BOLTZMANN-VLASOV EQUATION; ELECTRONS; FOILS; IONS; LASER RADIATION; LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA; LAYERS; MEV RANGE; NUMERICAL ANALYSIS; PLASMA HEATING; POTENTIALS; PROTON BEAMS; PROTONS; THIN FILMS; TRAPPING
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/1.3266813

We present theoretical and numerical studies of the acceleration of monoenergetic protons in a double layer formed by the laser irradiation of an ultra-thin film. The stability of the foil is investigated by direct Vlasov-Maxwell simulations for different sets of laser-plasma parameters. It is found that the foil is stable, due to the trapping of both electrons and ions in the thin laser-plasma interaction region, where the electrons are trapped in a potential well composed of the ponderomo-tive potential of the laser light and the electrostatic potential due to the ions, and the ions are trapped in a potential well composed of the inertial potential in an accelerated frame and the electrostatic potential due to the electrons. The result is a stable double layer, where the trapped ions are accelerated to monoenergetic energies up to 100 MeV and beyond, which makes them suitable for medical applications cancer treatment. The underlying physics of trapped and untapped ions in a double layer is also investigated theoretically and numerically.