Guided post-acceleration of laser-driven ions by a miniature modular structure

Year: 2016

Authors: Kar S., Ahmed H., Prasad R., Cerchez M., Brauckmann S., Aurand B., Cantono G., Hadjisolomou P., Lewis C., Macchi A., Nersisyan G., Robinson A., Schroer A.-M., Swantusch M., Zepf M., Willi O., Borghesi M.

Autors Affiliation: Queens Univ Belfast, Sch Math & Phys, Belfast BT7 1NN, Antrim, North Ireland; Univ Dusseldorf, Inst Laser & Plasmaphys, D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany; Dept Phys E Fermi, Largo B Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy; CNR, Ist Nazl Ott, Res Unit Adriano Gozzini, Via G Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa, Italy; Rutherford Appleton Lab, Cent Laser Facil, Didcot OX11 0QX, Oxon, England; Helmholtz Inst Jena, D-07743 Jena, Germany; Univ Jena, Inst Opt & Quantenelekt, D-07743 Jena, Germany.

Abstract: All-optical approaches to particle acceleration are currently attracting a significant research effort internationally. Although characterized by exceptional transverse and longitudinal emittance, laser-driven ion beams currently have limitations in terms of peak ion energy, bandwidth of the energy spectrum and beam divergence. Here we introduce the concept of a versatile, miniature linear accelerating module, which, by employing laser-excited electromagnetic pulses directed along a helical path surrounding the laser-accelerated ion beams, addresses these shortcomings simultaneously. In a proof-of-principle experiment on a university-scale system, we demonstrate post-acceleration of laser-driven protons from a flat foil at a rate of 0.5 GeV m−1, already beyond what can be sustained by conventional accelerator technologies, with dynamic beam collimation and energy selection. These results open up new opportunities for the development of extremely compact and cost-effective ion accelerators for both established and innovative applications.

Journal/Review: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS

Volume: 7      Pages from: 10792-1  to: 10792-7

More Information: We acknowledge the use of the TARANIS Laser Facility in the Centre for Plasma Physics at Queens University Belfast for the preliminary work related to the development of the core concept. We thank for the support of D. Doria (QUB), D. Gwynne (QUB), F. Hanton (QUB), K. Naughton (QUB) and A.L. Giesecke (HHU) in carrying out the experiments at TARANIS Laser Facility and T. Wowra (HHU) for the experiment discussed in this paper. We acknowledge funding from EPSRC (EP/J002550/1-Career Acceleration Fellowship held by S.K., EP/L002221/1, EP/K022415/1 and EP/I029206/1), Laserlab-Europe (EC-GA 284464), SFB/TR18, GRK1203 and Invest Northern Ireland (POC-329). We acknowledge Prof. S. Ter-avetisyan (GIST, Korea) and Dr Jason Wiggins (QUB) for useful discussions, and A. Schiavi (Univ. Roma 1, Italy) for the use of the particle tracing code, PTRACE. Data associated with research published in this paper can be accessible at http://dx.doi.org/10.17034/5d88ccf9-31cf-4e13-8023-0693334d27d8.
KeyWords: plasma interactions; proton-beams; absorption; pulses; electrons; density
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10792

Citations: 103
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