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Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 204801 (2004) [4 pages]

Ultralow Emittance, Multi-MeV Proton Beams from a Laser Virtual-Cathode Plasma Accelerator

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T. E. Cowan1,9, J. Fuchs1,2,9, H. Ruhl1,9, A. Kemp1,9, P. Audebert2, M. Roth3, R. Stephens1, I. Barton1, A. Blazevic3, E. Brambrink3, J. Cobble4, J. Fernández4, J.-C. Gauthier2, M. Geissel3, M. Hegelich4,5, J. Kaae1, S. Karsch5, G. P. Le Sage6, S. Letzring4, M. Manclossi7, S. Meyroneinc8, A. Newkirk1, H. Pépin2, and N. Renard-LeGalloudec9
1General Atomics, San Diego, California 92121, USA
2Laboratoire pour l’Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, UMR 7605, CNRS-CEA-École Polytechnique-Université Paris VI, 91128 Palaiseau, France
3Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany
4Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of California, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
5Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
6Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, Livermore, California 94550, USA
7Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée, ENSTA-École Polytechnique, 91761 Palaiseau CEDEX, France
8Centre de Protonthérapie d’Orsay, 91402 Orsay, France
9Physics Department, MS-220, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557, USA

Received 9 November 2003; published 19 May 2004

The laminarity of high-current multi-MeV proton beams produced by irradiating thin metallic foils with ultraintense lasers has been measured. For proton energies >10  MeV, the transverse and longitudinal emittance are, respectively, <0.004  mm mrad and <10-4  eV s, i.e., at least 100-fold and may be as much as 104-fold better than conventional accelerator beams. The fast acceleration being electrostatic from an initially cold surface, only collisions with the accelerating fast electrons appear to limit the beam laminarity. The ion beam source size is measured to be <15   μm (FWHM) for proton energies >10  MeV.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.204801
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.204801
PACS:
29.27.Fh, 52.38.Kd, 52.40.Kh, 52.70.Nc
 
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