ion acceleration using ultra-short and intense laser pulse interaction with near critical plasmas in nano-structured targets

We present a numerical investigation of the interaction of an ultra-short ultra-intense laser pulse with cylindrical nano-rods. We make use of full 3d particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations with the help of the simulation code MASIF. These studies are performed in the context of the paper by Ruhl and Korn [1], where they investigate the building blocks of a potential proton & boron-11 (pB11) fusion reactor. Our studies show that the interaction of the ultra-short ultra-intense laser pulse with cylindrical nano-structures leads to efficient acceleration of protons and boron ions via Coulomb explosions. We find that the energy loss of the laser pulse scales linearly with propagation depth. In addition, super-strong electromagnetic fields are generated in the target.