Advanced strategies for ion acceleration using high power lasers

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent experimental and theoretical advances in laser-driven ion acceleration techniques, highlighting new regimes like target normal sheath, radiation pressure, and shock acceleration, and discusses future challenges.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent progress in advanced laser-driven ion acceleration methods and identifies open issues for future research.

Findings

Target normal sheath acceleration with ultrashort low-energy pulses shows promise.

Radiation pressure acceleration can effectively accelerate ions in various target types.

Collisionless shock acceleration offers a potential alternative regime for ion acceleration.

Abstract

A short overview of laser-plasma acceleration of ions is presented. The focus is on some recent experimental results and related theoretical work on advanced regimes. These latter include in particular target normal sheath acceleration using ultrashort low-energy pulses and structured targets, radiation pressure acceleration of both thick and ultrathin targets, and collisionless shock acceleration in moderate density plasmas. For each approach, open issues and the need and potential for further developments are briefly discussed.