Laser-triggered proton acceleration from hydrogenated low-density targets

• Main Authors: A. V. Brantov, E. A. Obraztsova, A. L. Chuvilin, E. D. Obraztsova, V. Yu. Bychenkov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society 2017-06-01
• Series: Physical Review Accelerators and Beams
• Online Access: http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.20.061301

Synchronized proton acceleration by ultraintense slow light (SASL) in low-density targets has been studied in application to fabricated carbon nanotube films. Proton acceleration from low-density plasma films irradiated by a linearly polarized femtosecond laser pulse of ultrarelativistic intensity was considered as result of both target surface natural contamination by hydrocarbons and artificial volumetric doping of low-density carbon nanotube films. The 3D particle-in-cell simulations confirm the SASL concept [A. V. Brantov et al., Synchronized Ion Acceleration by Ultraintense Slow Light, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 085004 (2016)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.116.085004] for proton acceleration by a femtosecond petawatt-class laser pulse from realistic low-density targets with a hydrogen impurity, quantify the characteristics of the accelerated protons, and demonstrate a significant increase of their energy compared with the proton energy generated from contaminated ultrathin solid dense foils.