Chirped standing wave acceleration of ions with intense lasers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new ion acceleration method called chirped standing wave acceleration (CSWA), which uses a chirped laser pulse and a mirror to generate stable, high-energy ion beams suitable for future high-intensity laser applications.

Contribution

The paper presents the first analytical and numerical demonstration of CSWA, a novel ion acceleration mechanism utilizing a chirped laser pulse and standing wave formation for stable, high-energy ion beam production.

Findings

Feasible generation of 100 MeV ion beams with 10 J laser pulses.

Scaling law indicating potential for GeV-level ion energies at higher intensities.

Stable ion acceleration achieved through electron motion locked to standing wave nodes.

Abstract

We propose a novel mechanism for ion acceleration based on the guided motion of electrons from a thin target. The electron motion is locked to the moving nodes of a standing wave formed by a chirped laser pulse reflected from a mirror behind the target. This provides a stable longitudinal field of charge separation, thus giving rise to chirped standing wave acceleration (CSWA) of the residual ions of the layer. We demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that quasi-monoenergetic ion beams with energies of the order 100 MeV are feasible for realistic pulse energies of 10 J. Moreover, a scaling law for higher laser intensities and layer densities is presented, indicating stable GeV-level energy gains of dense ion bunches, for soon-to-be available laser intensities.