Proton acceleration to above 5.5 MeV by interaction of 10[sup]17[/sup] W/cm[sup]2[/sup] laser pulse with H[sub]2[/sub]O nano-wire targets

E. Schleifer; N. Bruner; S. Eisenmann; M. Botton; S. A. Pikuz Jr.; A. Y. Faenov; D. Gordon; A. Zigler

doi:10.1117/12.888993

25 May 2011 Proton acceleration to above 5.5 MeV by interaction of 10¹⁷ W/cm² laser pulse with H₂O nano-wire targets

E. Schleifer, N. Bruner, S. Eisenmann, M. Botton, S. A. Pikuz Jr., A. Y. Faenov, D. Gordon, A. Zigler

Proceedings Volume 8079, Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Secondary Sources of Radiation and Particles; 80791M (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.888993
Event: SPIE Optics + Optoelectronics, 2011, Prague, Czech Republic

Abstract

Compact sources of high energy protons (50-500MeV) are expected to be key technology in a wide range of scientific applications ^1-8. Particularly promising is the target normal sheah acceleration (TNSA) scheme ^9,10, holding record level of 67MeV protons generated by a peta-Watt laser ¹¹. In general, laser intensity exceeding 10¹⁸ W/cm² is required to produce MeV level protons. Enhancing the energy of generated protons using compact laser sources is very attractive task nowadays. Recently, nano-scale targets were used to accelerate ions ^12,13. Here we report on the first generation of 5.5-7.5MeV protons by modest laser intensities (4.5 × 10¹⁷ W/cm²) interacting with H₂O nano-wires (snow) deposited on a Sapphire substrate. In this setup, the plasma near the tip of the nano-wire is subject to locally enhanced laser intensity with high spatial gradients, and confined charge separation is obtained. Electrostatic fields of extremely high intensities are produced, and protons are accelerated to MeV-level energies. Nano-wire engineered targets will relax the demand of peak energy from laser based sources.

Citation Download Citation

E. Schleifer, N. Bruner, S. Eisenmann, M. Botton, S. A. Pikuz Jr., A. Y. Faenov, D. Gordon, and A. Zigler "Proton acceleration to above 5.5 MeV by interaction of 10¹⁷ W/cm² laser pulse with H₂O nano-wire targets", Proc. SPIE 8079, Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions; and Medical Applications of Laser-Generated Secondary Sources of Radiation and Particles, 80791M (25 May 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.888993

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