Ion acceleration by an ultrashort laser pulse interacting with a near-critical-density gas jet and perspectives to micro-compressionONLINE ONLY

   For an efficient generation of ion beams by high-intensity laser-plasma interaction one must overcome the limitations on repetition rate of micro- and macro-bunches and improve the emittance of accelerated beams. A collaboration led by CELIA (Univ. Bordeaux, France) pushes the development of sources operable at the high-repetition rate of the novel PW-power Ti:Sa laser facilities emerging all across Europe. Likewise, the development of all-optical platforms for laser-accelerated ion beam tailoring is in the focus of many research collaborations, one of which is upheld between Univ. Bordeaux, TU-Darmstadt and LIGHT at GSI.

   The seminary will summarize experimental activities on Helium ion acceleration using near-critical density gas jet targets, with preliminary evidence of beams with cut-off energies above 46 MeV and peak ion number above 10$^{8}$ MeV$^{-1}$ for (22±2) MeV$^{-1}$ projectiles. Ion beams proof to be reproducible in low-repetition-rate experiments with supersonic shock nozzles at the high-repetition-rate VEGA-2 laser system at CLPU (Salamanca, Spain) with 3 J in pulses of 30 fs focused down to intensities in the range between 9⨉10$^{19}$ Wcm$^{-2}$ and 1.2⨉10$^{20}$ Wcm$^{-2}$.

   All-optical beam transport elements for spectral bunching are under investigation in experiments at the high power laser PHELIX with 500 fs pulses interacting with coil targets. Strong EM fields are induced by kA scale return-currents and pulsed potential dynamics, both follow the laser-driven target discharge at intensities of 10$^{19}$ Wcm$^{-2}$. These have shown efficiency in tailoring 10 MeV ion beam emittance, with the possibility of chromatic tuning the effects by simply controlling the delay between laser pulses or geometric properties of the target.

   Compact generation and short-track beam tailoring offer promising perspectives to many applications in exploratory HEDP ranging from the controlled heating of warm-dense matter, over studies of collective stopping effects, to ion beams for fast ignition.

Zoom-Meeting
https://gsi-fair.zoom.us/j/96629963798

Meeting-ID: 966 2996 3798
Kenncode: 130302