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Simulations of energetic proton emission in laser–plasma interaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2004

LAURENT POMMIER  and
ERIK LEFEBVRE
LAURENT POMMIER
Affiliation:
Département de Physique Théorique et Appliquée, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique/Direction des Applications Militaires Ile de France, Bruyères-le-Châtel, France
ERIK LEFEBVRE
Affiliation:
Département de Physique Théorique et Appliquée, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique/Direction des Applications Militaires Ile de France, Bruyères-le-Châtel, France
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Abstract

Energetic protons are emitted from thin foils irradiated by short laser pulses at high intensities. One- and two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations have been used to study the influence of initial proton position, laser irradiance, and target density profile on this ion acceleration. These simulations bring additional support to the idea that protons are mainly accelerated from the rear side of the target, by electrostatic fields associated with hot electrons escaping into vacuum. The density scale length at the front of the target appears to be the main parameter to increase proton energies when the laser irradiance is fixed.

Keywords

Energetic protonsHot electron productionLaser–plasma interactionNumerical simulationsUltraintense laser pulses
Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 2003 , pp. 573 - 581
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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