Laser plasma-based ion accelerators have not reached their full potential in producing high-radiation doses at high energies. The most stringent limitation is the lack of a suitable high-repetition rate target that also provides a high degree of control of the plasma conditions. For high-intensity laser-solid interactions, the absolute density and surface gradients of the target at the arrival...
Ion acceleration via compact laser-plasma sources presents great potential for applications ranging from medical treatments to fusion research. Achieving the desired beam quality parameters necessitates an in-depth understanding and precise control of the laser-plasma interaction process. Our ongoing collaborative research at the DRACO PW (HZDR) and J-KAREN-P (KPSI) laser systems is focused on...
Target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) is one of the best-known laser-plasma interaction mechanism of ion acceleration, capable of generating multi-MeV collimated ion beams. The conventional TNSA (flat-foil target) has a few inherent limitations, such as poor coupling efficiency of the laser energy into hot electrons and short ion acceleration distance at the back of the target. By means of...
In a series of experiments at OMEGA EP facility, we explore potential of petawatt 1-um laser-driven ion acceleration in two-photon polymerization 3D laser printed microstructures. We tested two types of accelerators made of acrylic log-pile organized wire and stochastic non-periodic wire microstructures. We find that enhanced target normal sheath acceleration mechanism is responsible for...
Energetic particles, including electrons, ions and secondary particles, are produced by directing an intense laser pulse at a target material. The laser-driven ion beam may find applications in inertial fusion or high-resolution images of both static and dynamic objects in next-generation radiography to probe materials and plasmas in extreme environments. To scale up ion beam production...
Characteristics of ions accelerated in laser plasma depend on the parameters of the irradiating laser pulse, especially on its temporal contrast and pulse duration. The latter can be varied also by introducing chirp to the spectral phase of the pulse. Recent studies have revealed such an effect with the use of 100 TW peak power lasers. However, the temporal contrast was probably not high...
Laser-driven ion accelerators (LDIAs) generate high-intensity beams, offering immense potential across various applications, including investigating ultra-high dose rate radiobiological research. The significant beam divergence of laser-driven proton beams at the source requires capture and transport of these beams to maintain a high particle intensity at the sample site located outside the...
High-energy, spin-polarized particles are of great interest for a variety of applications like deep-inelastic scattering for the investigation of the proton nuclear structure or fusion, where the use of polarized reactants can increase the fusion cross-section. Acceleration of such particles via laser-plasma interaction can prove to be difficult, as the target needs to be pre-polarized. This...
Traditional linear accelerators (LINACS) are effective for accelerating large amounts of ion charge with high efficiency. However, their compactness is limited by the breakdown of the solid accelerating structure, typically on the order of MV/m. On the other hand, laser-target ion accelerators can produce much higher accelerating field, e.g. via a TNSA mechanism, but are limited in the...