Speaker
Hui Zhang
Description
See the full Abstract at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2018ABS/pdf/P2.2028.pdf
Collisionless shock acceleration of high-flux quasimonoenergetic proton
beams driven by circularly polarized laser pulses
H. Zhang1, B. F. Shen1, 2, 3, a), W. P. Wang1, S. H. Zhai1, S. S. Li1, X. M. Lu1, J. F. Li1, R. J.
Xu1, X. L. Wang1, X. Y. Liang1, Y. X. Leng1, R. X. Li1, 3, a), and Z. Z. Xu1, 3
1
State Key Laboratory of High Field Laser Physics, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine
Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
2
Department of Physics, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
3
Collaborative Innovation Center of IFSA, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai
200240, China
Laser-driven ion accelerators have the prospects of realizing compact and affordable ion
sources for many exciting applications, many of which require ion beams with narrow energy
spread as well as high flux. Here, using an 800-nm circularly polarized laser pulse interacting
with an overdense plasma that is produced by a laser prepulse ionizing an initially ultrathin
plastic foil, we experimentally demonstrate collisionless shock acceleration of
quasimonoenergetic proton beams with peak energies up to 9 MeV and extremely high fluxes
of 3×1012 protons/MeV/sr [1]. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that
collisionless shocks are efficiently launched by circularly polarized lasers in exploded
plasmas, resulting in a narrow energy spectrum. Furthermore, this novel scheme predicts the
generation of quasimonoenergetic proton beams with peak energies of approximately 150
MeV using current laser technology. These results represent a major step for developing
high-flux, high-energy and monoenergetic ion sources for applications such as cancer
therapy.
Reference
[1] H. Zhang, B. F. Shen,a) W. P. Wang, S. H. Zhai, S. S. Li, X. M. Lu, J. F. Li, R. J. Xu, X. L. Wang, X. Y.
Liang, Y. X. Leng, R. X. Li,b) and Z. Z. Xu， Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 164801 (2017).
