Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T15:27:53.381Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Simulations of carbon ion acceleration by 10 PW laser pulses on ELI-NP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2019

D. Sangwan
Affiliation:
“Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics ELI-NP, Romania
O. Culfa*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE68588, USA Department of Physics, Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University, Karaman70200, Turkey
C.P. Ridgers
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, York Plasma Institute, The University of York, YorkYO10 5DD, UK
S. Aogaki
Affiliation:
“Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics ELI-NP, Romania
D. Stutman
Affiliation:
“Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics ELI-NP, Romania Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD21218, USA
B. Diaconescu
Affiliation:
“Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics ELI-NP, Romania
*
Author for correspondence: O. Culfa, Department of Physics, Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University, Karaman, 70200, Turkey. E-mail: ozgurculfa@kmu.edu.tr

Abstract

We present results of 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of carbon ion acceleration by 10 petawatt (PW) laser pulses, studying both circular polarized (CP) and linear polarized (LP) pulses. We carry out a thickness scanning of a solid carbon target to investigate the ideal thickness for carbon ion acceleration mechanisms using a 10 PW laser with an irradiance of 5 × 1022 W cm−2. The energy spectra of carbon ions and electrons and their temperature are studied. Additionally, for the carbon ions, their angular divergence is studied. It is shown that the ideal thickness for the carbon acceleration is 120 nm and the cutoff energy for carbon ions is 5 and 3 GeV for CP and LP pulses, respectively. The corresponding carbon ions temperature is ~1 and ~0.75 GeV. On the other hand, the energy cutoff for the electrons is ~500 MeV with LP and ~400 MeV with CP laser pulses. We report that the breakout afterburner mechanism is most likely causing the acceleration of carbon ions to such high energies for the optimal target thickness.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arber, TD, Bennett, K, Brady, CS, Lawrence-Douglas, A, Ramsay, MG, Sircombe, NJ, Gillies, P, Evans, RG, Schmitz, H, Bell, AR and Ridgers, CP (2015) Contemporary particle-in-cell approach to laser-plasma modelling. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 57, 113001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beg, FN, Bell, AR, Dangor, AE, Danson, CN, Fews, AP, Glinsky, ME, Hammel, BA, Lee, P, Norreys, PA and Tatarakis, M (1997) A study of picosecond laser–solid interactions up to 1019 W cm−2. Physics of Plasmas 4, 447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaga, C, Xu, J, DiChiara, A, Sistrunk, E, Zhang, K, Agostini, P., Miller, T., Mauro, LFD and Lin, CD (2011) Imaging ultrafast molecular dynamics with laser-induced electron diffraction. Nature 483, 194197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulanov, SV, Wilkens, JJ, Esirkepov, TZ, Korn, G, Kraft, G, Kraft, SD, Molls, M and Khoroshkov, VS (2014) Laser ion acceleration for hadron therapy. Physics Uspekhi 57, 11491179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culfa, O, Tallents, GJ, Wagenaars, E, Ridgers, CP, Dance, RJ, Rossall, AK, Gray, RJ, McKenna, P, Brown, CDR, James, SF, Hoarty, DJ, Booth, N, Robinson, APL, Lancaster, KL, Pikuz, SA, Faenov, AY, Kampfer, T, Schulze, KS, Uschmann, I and Woolsey, NC (2014) Hot electron production in laser solid interactions with a controlled pre-pulse. Physics of Plasmas 21, 043106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culfa, O, Tallents, GJ, Korkmaz, M, Rossall, A, Wagenaars, E, Ridgers, C, Murphy, CR, Booth, N, Carroll, D, Wilson, L, Lancaster, K and Woolsey, N (2017) Plasma scale length effects on protons generated in ultra intense laser plasmas. Laser and Particle Beams 35, 5863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daido, H, Nishiuchi, M and Pirozhkov, A (2012) Review of laser-driven ion sources and their applications. Reports on Progress in Physics 75, 056401.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Duff, MJ, Capdessus, R, Sorbo, DD, Ridgers, C, King, M and McKenna, P (2018) Modelling the effects of the radiation reaction force on the interaction of thin foils with ultra-intense laser fields. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 60, 064006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ELI (2019) Available at: http://eli-laser.eu.Google Scholar
Esarey, E, Schroeder, CB and Leemans, WP (2009) Physics of laser-driven plasma-based electron accelerators. Review of Modern Physics 81, 12291285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esirkepov, T, Borghesi, M, Bulanov, S, Mourou, G and Tajima, T (2004) Highly efficient relativistic-ion generation in the laser-piston regime. Physical Review Letters 92, 175003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gonzalez-Izquierdo, B, King, M, Gray, R, Wilson, R, Dance, R, Powell, H, Maclellan, D, McCreadie, J, Butler, N, Hawkes, S, Green, JS, Murphy, C, Stockhausen, L, Carroll, D, Booth, N, Scoot, G, Borghesi, M, Neely, D and McKenna, P (2016) Towards optical polarization control of laser-driven proton acceleration in foils undergoing relativistic transparency. Nature Communications 7, 12891.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hegelich, BM, Pomerantz, I, Yin, L, Wu, HC, Jung, D, Albright, BJ, Gautier, DC, Letzring, S, Palaniyappan, S, Shah, R, Allinger, K, Horlein, R, Schreiber, J, Habs, D, Blakeney, J, Dyer, G, Fuller, L, Gaul, E, Mccary, E, Meadows, AR, Wang, C, Ditmire, T and Fernandez, JC (2013) Laser-driven ion acceleration from relativistically transparent nanotargets. New Journal of Physics 15, 085015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henig, A, Kiefer, D, Markey, K, Gautier, DC, Flippo, KA, Letzring, S, Johnson, RP, Shimada, T, Yin, L, Albright, BJ, Bowers, KJ, Fernández, JC, Rykovanov, SG, Wu, H-C, Zepf, M, Jung, D, Liechtenstein, VK, Schreiber, J, Habs, D and Hegelich, BM (2009) Enhanced laser-driven ion acceleration in the relativistic transparency regime. Physical Review Letters 103, 045002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higginson, A, Gray, R, King, M, Dance, R, Williamson, S, Butler, N, Wilson, R, Capdessus, R, Armstrong, C, Green, J, Hawkes, S, Martin, P, Wei, W, Mirfayzi, S, Yuan, X, Kar, S, Borghesi, M, Clarke, R, Neely, D and McKenna, P (2018) Near-100 mev protons via a laser-driven transparency-enhanced hybrid acceleration scheme. Nature Communications 9, 724.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jung, D, Yin, L, Gautier, D, Wu, H, Letzring, S, Dromey, B, Shah, R, Palaniyappan, S, Shimada, T, Johnson, R, Schreiber, J, Habs, D, Fernandez, J, Hegelich, B and Albright, BJ (2013) Laser-driven 1 GeV carbon ions from preheated diamond targets in the break-out afterburner regime. Physics of Plasmas 20, 083103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macchi, A, Borghesi, M and Passoni, M (2013) Ion acceleration by superintense laser-plasma interaction. Reviews of Modern Physics 85, 751793.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohno, T (2013) Particle radiotherapy with carbon ion beams. The EPMA Journal 4, 9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Passoni, M, Bertagna, L and Zan, A (2010) Target normal sheath acceleration: theory,comparison with experiments and future perspectives. New Journal of Physics 12, 045012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petrov, GM, McGuffey, C, Thomas, AGR, Krushelnick, K and Beg, FN (2017) Heavy ion acceleration in the radiation pressure acceleration and breakout afterburner regimes. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 59, 075003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qiao, B, Kar, S, Geissler, M, Gibbon, P, Zepf, M and Borghesi, M (2012) Dominance of radiation pressure in ion acceleration with linearly polarized pulses at intensities of 1021 W cm−2. Physical Review Letters 108, 115002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridgers, CP, Brady, CS, Ducluos, R, Kirk, JG, Bennett, K, Arber, TD, Robinson, APL and Bell, AR (2012) Dense electron-positron plasmas and ultraintense gamma rays from laser-irradiated solids. Physical Review Letters 108, 165006.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ridgers, C, Kirk, J, Duclous, R, Blackburn, T, Brady, C, Bennette, K, Arber, T and Bell, A (2014) Modelling gamma-ray photon emission and pair production in high-intensity laser–matter interactions. Journal of Computational Physics 260, 273285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, APL, Zepf, M, Kar, S, Evans, RG and Bellei, C (2008) Radiation pressure acceleration of thin foils with circularly polarized laser pulses. New Journal of Physics 10, 013021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schardt, D, Elsasser, T and Schulz-Ertner, D (2010) Heavy-ion tumor therapy: physical and radiobiological benefits. Reviews of Modern Physics 82, 383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scullion, C, Doria, D, Romagnani, L, Sgattoni, A, Naughton, K, Symes, DR, McKenna, P, Macchi, A, Zepf, M, Kar, S and Borghesi, M (2017) Polarization dependence of bulk ion acceleration from ultrathin foils irradiated by high-intensity ultrashort laser pulses. Physical Review Letters 119, 054801.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snavely, R, Key, M, Hatchett, S, Cowan, T, Roth, M, Phillips, T, Stoyer, M, Henry, E, Sangster, T, Singh, M, Wilks, S, MacKinnon, A, Offenberger, A, Pennington, D, Yasuike, K, Langdon, A, Lasinski, B, Johnson, J, Perry, M and Campbell, E (2000) Intense high-energy proton beams from petawatt-laser irradiation of solids. Physical Review Letters 85, 29452948.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sorbo, DD, Blackman, DR, Capdessus, R, Small, K, Slade-Lowther, C, Luo, W, Duff, MJ, Robinson, APL, McKenna, P, Sheng, ZM, Pasley, J and Ridgers, CP (2018) Efficient ion acceleration and dense electron–positron plasma creation in ultra-high intensity laser-solid interactions. New Journal of Physics 20, 033014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinke, S, van Tilborg, J, Benedetti, C, Geddes, CGR, Schroeder, CB, Daniels, J, Swanson, KK, Gonsalves, AJ, Nakamura, K, Matlis, NH, Shaw, BH, Esarey, E and Leemans, WP (2016) Multi stage coupling of independent laser-plasma accelerators. Nature 530, 190193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajima, T and Dawson, J (1979) Laser electron accelerator. Physical Review Letters 43, 267270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamburini, M, Pegoraro, F, Piazza, AD, Keitel, CH and Macchi, A (2010) Radiation reaction effects on radiation pressure acceleration. New Journal of Physics 12, 123005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilks, S, Langdon, A, Cowan, T, Rooth, M, Singh, M, Hatchett, S, Key, M, Pennington, D, MacKinnon, A and Snavely, R (2001) Energetic proton generation in ultra-intense laser–solid interactions. Physics of Plasmas 8, 542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yin, L, Albright, BJ, Hegelich, B, Bowers, K, Flippo, K, Kwan, TJT and Fernandez, JC (2007) Monoenergetic and gev ion acceleration from the laser breakout afterburner using ultrathin targets. Physics of Plasmas 14, 056706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yin, L, Albright, BJ, Bowers, KJ, Jung, D, Fernandez, JC and Hegelic, BM (2011) Three-dimensional dynamics of breakout afterburner ion acceleration using high-contrast short-pulse laser and nanoscale targets. Physical Review Letters 107, 045003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhang, X, Shen, B, Li, X, Jin, Z, Wang, F and Wen, M (2007) Efficient gev ion generation by ultraintense circularly polarized laser pulse. Physics of Plasmas 14, 123108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar