Interaction of Short Petawatt Laser Pulses with Plasma
- Theory and Simulations

Laserlab Europe Workshop

Georg-Christoph-Lichtenberg-Haus, Darmstadt
October 14 - 17, 2007 -
Registered Participants Information

Title:	Prof.
Last Name:	Tikhonchuk
First Name:	Vladimir
E-Mail:	tikhoncelia.u-bordeaux1.fr
Affiliation for Badge:	University of Bordeaux
Institute:	CELIA
Address (Street):	351, Cours de la Libération
Postal Code, City:	33405 Talence cedex
Country:	France
Phone:	05 40 00 37 64
Fax:	05 40 00 25 80
Author(s):	LIMPOUCH Jiri 1), PSIKAL Jan 1), 2), TIKHONCHUK Vladimir 2), KLIMO Ondrej 1), BRANTOV Andrey 3) and ANDREEV Alexander
Institute(s):	1) FNSPE, Czech Technical University in Prague, 115 19 PRAGUE 1, Czech Republic 2) CELIA, CNRS-CEA-Université Bordeaux 1, TALENCE cedex, France 3) P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, MOSCOW, Russia 4) ILP, S. I. Vavilov State Optical Institute, St. PETERSBURG, Russia
Title:	Laser acceleration of ions in mass-limited multi-species targets
Abstract:	Ion acceleration in targets irradiated by short ultra-intense laser pulses has been studied here with 2D3V relativistic electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations, which describe the complete process from the electron acceleration in the laser field to the ion bunch formation. Simulations were performed for plane targets (foils and foil sections) and cylindrical targets that serve as a two-dimensional model of a spherical micro-droplet. All targets have comparable µm-scale sizes and a realistic initial density and temperature. The simulations account for multiple ion species and the electron cooling in the expanding micro-plasma. It is shown that presence of two ion species with different charge-to-mass ratios facilitates the formation of persistent peak in energy distribution of lighter ions, while the heavier ions act like a piston. Energy spectra of fast ions, energy balance, laser conversion efficiency to fast ions and the divergence of ion beams are compared for various types of targets. We demonstrate that the limited-mass targets enhance the fast ion energy. Moreover, the ion energy spectrum may be tailored by changing the target density profile and/or transporting the ion bunch through a secondary thin target.