Laguerre-Gaussian pulses for spin-polarized ion beam acceleration

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that Laguerre-Gaussian laser pulses can effectively accelerate spin-polarized Helium-3 ions with high polarization retention and low divergence, advancing polarized ion beam technology.

Contribution

It introduces the use of Laguerre-Gaussian laser modes for spin-polarized ion acceleration, showing improved polarization and beam quality over traditional Gaussian pulses.

Findings

Laguerre-Gaussian pulses achieve ~90% polarization retention.

The method produces low-divergence ion beams.

Simulation results outperform conventional Gaussian laser acceleration.

Abstract

Polarized particle sources have a plethora of applications, ranging from deep-inelastic scattering to nuclear fusion. One crucial challenge in laser-plasma interaction is maintaining the initial polarization of the target. Here, we propose the acceleration of spin-polarized Helium-3 from near-critical density targets using high-intensity Laguerre-Gaussian laser pulses. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that Magnetic Vortex Acceleration with these modes yields higher polarization on the 90%-level compared to conventional Gaussian laser pulses, while also providing low-divergence beams.