Ion acceleration regimes in underdense plasmas

Author

Pegoraro, Francesco ; Bulanov, Sergei V. ; Califano, Francesco ; Esirkepov, Timur Zh ; Lisejkina, Tatiana V. ; Naumova, Natalia M. ; Ruhl, Hartmut ; Vshivkov, Vitali A.

Author_Institution

Dipartimento di Fisica, Pisa Univ., Italy

Volume

28

Issue

4

fYear

2000

Firstpage

1226

Lastpage

1232

Abstract

Acceleration of large populations of ions up to high (relativistic) energies may represent one of the most important and interesting tools that can be provided by the interaction of petawatt laser pulses with matter. In this paper, the basic mechanisms of ion acceleration by short laser pulses are studied in underdense plasmas. The ion acceleration does not originate directly from the pulse fields, but it is mediated by the electrons in the form of electrostatic fields originating from channeling, double layer formation and Coulomb explosion.

Keywords

acceleration; dissociation; electric fields; plasma density; plasma light propagation; plasma sheaths; relativistic plasmas; Coulomb explosion; channeling; double layer formation; electrostatic fields; high energies; ion acceleration mechanisms; ion acceleration regimes; ion population; laser pulse-matter interactions; particle in cell simulation; petawatt laser pulses; pulse fields; relativistic energies; short laser pulses; ultraintense laser pulse; underdense plasmas; Acceleration; Electrons; Laser fusion; Laser theory; Optical pulses; Plasma accelerators; Plasma applications; Plasma confinement; Plasma simulation; Power lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.893311

Filename

893311