Radiation-pressure-dominant acceleration: Polarization and radiation reaction effects and energy increase in three-dimensional simulations

Year: 2012

Authors: Tamburini A., Liseykina T.V., Pegoraro F., Macchi A.

Autors Affiliation: CNR, Ist Nazl Ott, Res Unit A Gozzini, Pisa, Italy; Univ Pisa, Dipartimento Fis E Fermi, I-56127 Pisa, Italy; Univ Rostock, Inst Phys, D-18051 Rostock, Germany.

Abstract: Polarization and radiation reaction (RR) effects in the interaction of a superintense laser pulse (I>10(23) Wcm(−2)) with a thin plasma foil are investigated with three dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. For a linearly polarized laser pulse, strong anisotropies such as the formation of two high-energy clumps in the plane perpendicular to the propagation direction and significant radiation reactions effects are observed. On the contrary, neither anisotropies nor significant radiation reaction effects are observed using circularly polarized laser pulses, for which the maximum ion energy exceeds the value obtained in simulations of lower dimensionality. The dynamical bending of the initially flat plasma foil leads to the self-formation of a quasiparabolic shell that focuses the impinging laser pulse strongly increasing its energy and momentum densities.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW E

Volume: 85 (1)      Pages from: 16407-1  to: 16407-5

More Information: Work sponsored by the Italian Ministry of University and Research via the FIRB project SULDIS. We acknowledge the CINECA Grant No. HP10A25JKT-2010 for the availability of high-performance computing resources.
KeyWords: laser-plasma interactions, ion acceleration, radiation pressure, radiation reaction, particle-in-cell simulations
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.85.016407

Citations: 60
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