Ion acceleration from laser-driven electrostatic shocks

TL;DR

This paper uses multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to demonstrate how laser-driven electrostatic shocks in tailored plasmas can generate high-energy, high-quality ion beams suitable for medical applications.

Contribution

It shows that intense laser interaction with near-critical density plasmas can produce high-velocity shocks and ion beams, advancing laser-driven ion acceleration techniques.

Findings

Ion reflection increases with plasma density ratio and drift velocity.

High-energy ion beams up to 200 MeV can be generated with current laser systems.

Efficient plasma heating and shock formation are achieved at the critical density interface.

Abstract

Multi-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are used to study the generation of electrostatic shocks in plasma and the reflection of background ions to produce high-quality and high-energy ion beams. Electrostatic shocks are driven by the interaction of two plasmas with different density and/or relative drift velocity. The energy and number of ions reflected by the shock increase with increasing density ratio and relative drift velocity between the two interacting plasmas. It is shown that the interaction of intense lasers with tailored near-critical density plasmas allows for the efficient heating of the plasma electrons and steepening of the plasma profile at the critical density interface, leading to the generation of high-velocity shock structures and high-energy ion beams. Our results indicate that high-quality 200 MeV shock-accelerated ion beams required for medical applications may be obtained with current laser systems.