Speaker
Sargis Ter-Avetisyan
Description
See the full Abstract at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2018ABS/pdf/P4.2008.pdf
Perspectives of Ion Acceleration with PW-lasers
S. Ter-Avetisyan1, A. Andreev1, P. K. Singh2, H. Ahmed3, M. Borghesi3 and
V. Yu. Bychenkov4
1
ELI-ALPS, Szeged, Hungary
2
Center for Relativistic Laser Science, Institute of Basic Science, Gwangju, South Korea
3
School of Mathematics and Physics, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, UK
4
P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Experiments on ion acceleration driven by high intensity lasers over the past ∼15 years have
demonstrated the generation of proton and ion beams with remarkable. Nowadays accessible
intensities, beyond 1021 W/cm2, have provided for the first time the opportunity to access new
ion acceleration regimes and to extend scaling laws for the acceleration process. It will be
discussed the recent experimental findings on ion acceleration obtained on PW laser.
In most laser-driven ion acceleration studies the sheath field established by relativistic
electrons at target surface accelerates ions, via the so-called Target Normal Sheath Acceleration
(TNSA). Newly found scenario at PW laser power offers more favorable proton energy scaling
with laser intensity than “ordinary” TNSA, the ions are accelerated in the electrostatic field of
charged cavity created by relativistic laser pulse at the target front and in the enhanced sheath
field at the target rear. A separate mechanism, Radiation Pressure Acceleration (RPA), where
Radiation pressure is exerted via laser ponderomotive force on a foil surface, which results in
local electron-ion displacement, and ion acceleration via the ensuing space-charge field.
These phenomena will be discussed by careful study of complex dynamics of laser-plasma
processes through characteristics of the ion source and accelerated beam properties.
This presentation is closely related to recent development or imminently anticipated
development of laser technology to bring the existing laser power to a multi-PW level to study
relativistic plasma phenomena and for application, e.g., ion acceleration. The findings pave a
way to achieving an ion source and beam desire parameters and they encourage further
activities for optimisation of laser plasma-based accelerators.
