Laser-driven electrodynamic implosion of fast ions in a thin shell

TL;DR

This paper theoretically explores how femtosecond petawatt laser pulses can induce electrodynamic implosion of ions within thin shells, leading to high-energy ion acceleration and potential applications in high-density plasma physics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism for ion acceleration via self-consistent fields and charge separation during laser-driven implosion of thin shells, supported by theoretical modeling.

Findings

Ions can reach energies of tens to hundreds of MeV.

Efficient ion acceleration occurs with laser intensities of 10^21 - 10^23 W/cm^2.

The mechanism involves oscillation of fast electrons near the shell.

Abstract

Collision of laser-driven subrelativistic high density ion flows provides a way to create extremely compressed ion conglomerates and study their properties. This paper presents a theoretical study of the electrodynamic implosion of ions inside a hollow spherical or cylindrical shell irradiated by femtosecond petawatt laser pulses. We propose to apply a very effective mechanism for ion acceleration in a selfconsistent field with strong charge separation, based on the oscillation of laser accelerated fast electrons in this field near the thin shell. Fast electrons are generated on the outer side of the shell under irradiation by the intense laser pulses. It is shown that ions, in particular protons, may be accelerated at the implosion stage to energies of tens and hundreds of MeV when a sub-micrometer shell is irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses with an intensity of 10^21 - 10^23 W cm^-2. .