Proton Acceleration Driven by a Nanosecond Laser from a Cryogenic Thin Solid-Hydrogen Ribbon

• Main Authors: D. Margarone, A. Velyhan, J. Dostal, J. Ullschmied, J. P. Perin, D. Chatain, S. Garcia, P. Bonnay, T. Pisarczyk, R. Dudzak, M. Rosinski, J. Krasa, L. Giuffrida, J. Prokupek, V. Scuderi, J. Psikal, M. Kucharik, M. De Marco, J. Cikhardt, E. Krousky, Z. Kalinowska, T. Chodukowski, G. A. P. Cirrone, G. Korn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society 2016-11-01
• Series: Physical Review X
• Online Access: http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.6.041030
• ISSN: 2160-3308

A high-power pulsed laser is focused onto a solid-hydrogen target to accelerate forward a collimated stream of protons in the range 0.1–1 MeV, carrying a very high energy of about 30 J (∼5% laser-ion conversion efficiency) and extremely large charge of about ∼0.1  mC per laser pulse. This result is achieved for the first time through the combination of a sophisticated target system (H_{2} thin ribbon) operating at cryogenic temperature (∼10  K) and a very hot H plasma (∼300  keV “hot electron” temperature) generated by a subnanosecond laser with an intensity of ∼3×10^{16}  W/cm^{2}. Both the H plasma and the accelerated proton beam are fully characterized by in situ and ex situ diagnostics. Results obtained using the ELISE (experiments on laser interaction with solid hydrogen) H_{2} target delivery system at PALS (Prague) kJ-class laser facility are presented and discussed along with potential multidisciplinary applications.