High-repetition-rate multi-modal proton beam diagnosis from intense laser-solid interactions

Recent experiments utilizing the L3/HAPLS laser at the ELI-Beamlines facility have demonstrated the capabilities of the Proton Beam Imaging Energy Spectrometer (PROBIES) diagnostic[1,2] during high-repetition-rate laser experiments. 10 µm thick copper foils were irradiated at >10²¹ W/cm² with 30 fs, 8 J pulses of 800 nm light at a shot rate of 0.2 Hz, generating relativistic electrons and an intense electric sheath field which accelerated protons to peak energies of ~20 MeV. By providing simultaneous measurement of the proton beam spatial profile alongside discrimination of proton energy due to its variable height step design, PROBIES allows us to gain deeper insight into the shot-to-shot stability and spectral characteristics of the proton beam than was previously possible.

We present analysis methods for rapidly processing the large volume of data produced during these experiments and compare the results to proton time-of-flight and Thomson parabola spectrometer diagnostics, which were fielded simultaneously.



[1] D. A. Mariscal et al., Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 63, 114003 (2021)

[2] D. A. Mariscal et al., Review of Scientific Instruments 94(2) (2023)