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Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 095002 (2009) [4 pages]

Laser-Driven Shock Acceleration of Ion Beams from Spherical Mass-Limited Targets

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A. Henig1,2,*, D. Kiefer1,2, M. Geissler1,3, S. G. Rykovanov1,4, R. Ramis5, R. Hörlein1,2, J. Osterhoff1, Zs. Major1,2, L. Veisz1, S. Karsch1, F. Krausz1,2, D. Habs1,2, and J. Schreiber1,2,6
1Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
2Department für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Garching, Germany
3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, United Kingdom
4Moscow Physics Engineering Institute, Kashirskoe shosse 31, Moscow, Russia
5ETSI Aeronáuticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
6Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom

Received 13 September 2008; published 4 March 2009

We report on experimental studies of ion acceleration from spherical targets of diameter 15  μm irradiated by ultraintense (1×1020  W/cm2) pulses from a 20-TW Ti:sapphire laser system. A highly directed proton beam with plateau-shaped spectrum extending to energies up to 8 MeV is observed in the laser propagation direction. This beam arises from acceleration in a converging shock launched by the laser, which is confirmed by 3-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The temporal evolution of the shock-front curvature shows excellent agreement with a two-dimensional radiation pressure model.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.095002
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.095002
PACS:
52.38.Kd, 41.75.Jv, 52.50.Jm, 52.65.Rr

*andreas.henig@mpq.mpg.de

 
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