Numerical Modeling of a High Repetition Rate Proton Spectrometer for Ultrafast Laser Plasma Interactions

High–intensity, ultrafast lasers incident on solid density matter can set up plasma conditions capable of accelerating protons to high energies. These laser driven ion sources can provide tunable energies and ion species, which are useful for applications such as hadron therapy. As high intensity laser repetition rates get larger, the need for diagnostics that can measure at the same repetition rates becomes critical. High repetition rate proton diagnostics are needed to enable statistical-level data analysis that leverage the systems ability to produce large datasets, which is useful in areas such as machine learning and takes advantage of the high number of shots taken during an experiment. Protons are captured without modifying the detector between shots. A numerical model was created in python to model the behavior of the stack-based detector which enables rapid design iteration. This code enables tailoring the detector configuration so that unique needs of various proton acceleration experiments can be achieved. This will enable improved proton and particle diagnostics for plasma-based acceleration experiments.