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Dependence of laser accelerated protons on laser energy following the interaction of defocused, intense laser pulses with ultra-thin targets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2011

C.M. Brenner ,
J.S. Green ,
A.P.L. Robinson ,
D.C. Carroll ,
B. Dromey ,
P.S. Foster ,
S. Kar ,
Y.T. Li ,
K. Markey  and
C. Spindloe
...Show all authors
C.M. Brenner*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
J.S. Green
Affiliation:
Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
A.P.L. Robinson
Affiliation:
Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
D.C. Carroll
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
B. Dromey
Affiliation:
Centre for Plasma Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
P.S. Foster
Affiliation:
Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
S. Kar
Affiliation:
Centre for Plasma Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
Y.T. Li
Affiliation:
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
K. Markey
Affiliation:
Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom Centre for Plasma Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
C. Spindloe
Affiliation:
Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
M.J.V. Streeter
Affiliation:
Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
M. Tolley
Affiliation:
Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
C.-G. Wahlström
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
M.H. Xu
Affiliation:
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
M. Zepf
Affiliation:
Centre for Plasma Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
P. McKenna
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
D. Neely
Affiliation:
Central Laser Facility, STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, United Kingdom
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Ceri M. Brenner, Room 2-60, R1, Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom. E-mail: ceri.brenner@stfc.ac.uk
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Abstract

The scaling of the flux and maximum energy of laser-driven sheath-accelerated protons has been investigated as a function of laser pulse energy in the range of 15–380 mJ at intensities of 1016–1018 W/cm2. The pulse duration and target thickness were fixed at 40 fs and 25 nm, respectively, while the laser focal spot size and drive energy were varied. Our results indicate that while the maximum proton energy is dependent on the laser energy and laser spot diameter, the proton flux is primarily related to the laser pulse energy under the conditions studied here. Our measurements show that increasing the laser energy by an order of magnitude results in a more than 500-fold increase in the observed proton flux. Whereas, an order of magnitude increase in the laser intensity generated by decreasing the laser focal spot size, at constant laser energy, gives rise to less than a tenfold increase in observed proton flux.

Keywords

Flux scalingLaser plasma accelerationLaserLaser-driven ion accelerationProton
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , September 2011 , pp. 345 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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