Towards optical polarization control of laser-driven proton acceleration in foils undergoing relativistic transparency

Bruno Gonzalez-Izquierdo, Martin King, Ross J. Gray, Robbie Wilson, Rachel J. Dance, Haydn Powell, David A. Maclellan, John McCreadie, Nicholas M. H. Butler, Steve Hawkes, James S. Green, Chris D. Murphy, Luca C. Stockhausen, David C. Carroll, Nicola Booth, Graeme G. Scott, Marco Borghesi, David Neely and Paul McKenna ()
Additional contact information
Bruno Gonzalez-Izquierdo: University of Strathclyde
Martin King: University of Strathclyde
Ross J. Gray: University of Strathclyde
Robbie Wilson: University of Strathclyde
Rachel J. Dance: University of Strathclyde
Haydn Powell: University of Strathclyde
David A. Maclellan: University of Strathclyde
John McCreadie: University of Strathclyde
Nicholas M. H. Butler: University of Strathclyde
Steve Hawkes: University of Strathclyde
James S. Green: Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Chris D. Murphy: University of York
Luca C. Stockhausen: Centro de Láseres Pulsados (CLPU), M5 Parque Científico
David C. Carroll: Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Nicola Booth: Central Laser Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Graeme G. Scott: University of Strathclyde
Marco Borghesi: Centre for Plasma Physics, Queens University Belfast
David Neely: University of Strathclyde
Paul McKenna: University of Strathclyde

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Control of the collective response of plasma particles to intense laser light is intrinsic to relativistic optics, the development of compact laser-driven particle and radiation sources, as well as investigations of some laboratory astrophysics phenomena. We recently demonstrated that a relativistic plasma aperture produced in an ultra-thin foil at the focus of intense laser radiation can induce diffraction, enabling polarization-based control of the collective motion of plasma electrons. Here we show that under these conditions the electron dynamics are mapped into the beam of protons accelerated via strong charge-separation-induced electrostatic fields. It is demonstrated experimentally and numerically via 3D particle-in-cell simulations that the degree of ellipticity of the laser polarization strongly influences the spatial-intensity distribution of the beam of multi-MeV protons. The influence on both sheath-accelerated and radiation pressure-accelerated protons is investigated. This approach opens up a potential new route to control laser-driven ion sources.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12891 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12891

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12891

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().