Multidimensional effects on proton acceleration using high-power intense laser pulses

Dimensional effects in particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) of protons are considered. As the spatial divergence of the laser-accelerated hot sheath electrons and the resulting space-charge electric field on the target backside depend on the spatial dimension...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2018-01
Main Authors: Xiao, K D, Zhou, C T, Jiang, K, Yang, Y C, R Li, Zhang, H, Qiao, B, Huang, T W, Cao, J M, Cai, T X, Yu, M Y, Ruan, S C, He, X T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Divergence
Electric fields
Particle in cell technique
Proton energy
Scaling laws
Sheaths
Simulation
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Dimensional effects in particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) of protons are considered. As the spatial divergence of the laser-accelerated hot sheath electrons and the resulting space-charge electric field on the target backside depend on the spatial dimension, the maximum energy of the accelerated protons obtained from three-dimensional (3D) simulations is usually much less that from two-dimensional (2D) simulations. By closely examining the TNSA of protons in 2D and 3D PIC simulations, we deduce an empirical ratio between the maximum proton energies obtained from the 2D and 3D simulations. This ratio may be useful for estimating the maximum proton energy in realistic (3D) TNSA from the results of the corresponding 2D simulation. It is also shown that the scaling law also applies to TNSA from structured targets.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1801.05957