Polarized Proton Beams from Laser-induced Plasmas

TL;DR

This paper explores a novel method to generate polarized proton and deuteron beams using laser-induced plasma acceleration, combining simulations and experimental design to achieve high-energy polarized beams.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of laser-driven plasma sources for polarized proton beams and incorporates spin effects into simulations for the first time.

Findings

Simulations show polarization is conserved during acceleration.

A polarized HCl gas-jet target is under construction.

Experiments aim to observe polarized beams from laser plasmas.

Abstract

We report on the concept of an innovative source to produce polarized proton/deuteron beams of a kinetic energy up to several GeV from a laser-driven plasma accelerator. Spin effects have been implemented into the PIC simulation code VLPL to make theoretical predictions about the behavior of proton spins in laser-induced plasmas. Simulations of spin-polarized targets show that the polarization is conserved during the acceleration process. For the experimental realization, a polarized HCl gas-jet target is under construction using the fundamental wavelength of a Nd:YAG laser system to align the HCl bonds and simultaneously circular polarized light of the fifth harmonic to photo-dissociate, yielding nuclear polarized H atoms. Subsequently, their degree of polarization is measured with a Lamb-shift polarimeter. The final experiments, aiming at the first observation of a polarized particle beam from laser-generated plasmas, will be carried out at the 10 PW laser system SULF at SIOM/Shanghai.