Sweeping acceleration of high charge ion beams in the large spot size regime with the high repetition rate BELLA petawatt laser

ORAL

Abstract

We present an experimental study of ion acceleration using the BELLA petawatt laser. Enabled by the high repetition rate (1 Hz) of the laser, targetry and diagnostic we were able to conduct parameter scans involving >100 shots. In the large laser spot size regime, where the laser pulse length is much shorter than the laser spot size on target and is obliquely incident, the laser pulse duration needs to be optimized to obtain uniform plasma heating across the focal plane. Proton spectra from laser pulse duration scans (35 -600fs) reveal such a geometric optimization of the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA). The field dynamics inferred from Particle-in-Cell simulations are used to unravel the interaction dynamics and provide further insights into the ion acceleration process.

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Presenters

  • Sven Steinke

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

Authors

  • Sven Steinke

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Jianhui Bin

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Jaehong Park

    Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA, Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Berkeley, CA, USA, Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Qing Ji

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Kei Nakamura

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, LBNL

  • Anthony J Gonsalves

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, LBNL

  • Stepan Bulanov

    Univ of California - Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Csaba Toth

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, LBNL, LBNL

  • Jean-Luc Vay

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Carl B Schroeder

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, LBNL

  • Cameron Guy Robinson Geddes

    Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, LBNL

  • Eric Esarey

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, LBNL

  • Thomas Schenkel

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Wim Pieter Leemans

    Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, U.C. Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Univ of California - Berkeley, LBNL, UC Berkeley