Radiation Reaction Effects on Radiation Pressure Acceleration

TL;DR

This paper investigates how radiation reaction influences the acceleration of plasma foils by superintense lasers, introducing a new simulation approach and revealing polarization-dependent effects at extremely high intensities.

Contribution

It presents a simplified Landau-Lifshitz based model for radiation reaction and a novel particle pusher for PIC simulations, analyzing their impact on laser-driven ion acceleration.

Findings

Radiation reaction significantly reduces ion energy at intensities above 10^{23} W/cm^2 for linear polarization.

Circular polarization shows negligible radiation reaction effects unless the foil is broken through.

The study provides insights into polarization-dependent dynamics in ultra-intense laser-plasma interactions.

Abstract

Radiation reaction (RR) effects on the acceleration of a thin plasma foil by a superintense laser pulse in the radiation pressure dominated regime are investigated theoretically. A simple suitable approximation of the Landau-Lifshitz equation for the RR force and a novel leapfrog pusher for its inclusion in particle-in-cell simulations are provided. Simulations for both linear and circular polarization of the laser pulse are performed and compared. It is found that at intensities exceeding $10^{23} \Wcm$ the radiation reaction force strongly affects the dynamics for a linearly polarized laser pulse, reducing the maximum ion energy but also the width of the spectrum. In contrast, no significant effect is found for circularly polarized laser pulses whenever the laser pulse does not break through the foil.