Collimation and energy enhancement in laser driven MeV protons

Ramakrishna, Bhuvanesh (2023) Collimation and energy enhancement in laser driven MeV protons. Physics of Plasmas, 30 (6). 063101. ISSN 1070-664X

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Abstract

Enhancing the energy and controlling the divergence of proton beam have been crucial tasks since the development of laser-based ion accelerators. In this study, we employ 2D particle-in-cell EPOCH simulation to investigate a method to control the divergence and enhance the energy of MeV proton beam produced from the interaction of high intensity laser with a gold target. The energy and divergence of proton beam for the conventional laser-foil target configuration are compared with our proposed three laser-three target configuration. In the single laser-single target configuration, a high intensity laser irradiates a gold foil target resulting in proton acceleration from the plasma. In contrast, in the three laser-three target configuration, the generated proton beam is allowed to traverse through the configuration of two parallel Al plates irradiated with high intensity lasers. The new configuration provides the proton energy enhancements of 40% and more collimated beam compared to the single laser-foil target setup. This collimation and energy increase are due to the vertical and horizontal components of the electric field generated by the hot electron plasma of Al plates. The proton energy and divergence can also be tuned by varying the plasma electron density of the Al plasma. Also, the control of proton beam collimation is explored by varying target parameters as well, and it is observed that the separation between the Al plates and length of the Al plates plays major role in controlling the divergence of the beam. This study will have a significant impact in the ongoing laser fusion program, fast ignition, and laser ion therapy.

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IITH Creators:

IITH Creators	ORCiD
Ramakrishna, Bhuvanesh	http://www.orcid.org/0000-0002-2728-6809

Item Type:

Article

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Electric fields; Gold; Plasma simulation; Energy; Energy enhancement; Foil target; High intensity lasers; Ion accelerator; Laser-based; Particle in cell; Proton energy; Single lasers; Target configurations; Proton beams

Subjects:

Physics
Physics > Classical mechanics

Divisions:

Department of Physics

Depositing User:

Mr Nigam Prasad Bisoyi

Date Deposited:

06 Jan 2024 10:06

Last Modified:

06 Jan 2024 10:06

URI:

http://raiithold.iith.ac.in/id/eprint/11779