Speaker
Description
A plasma shutter [1,2] is usually a thin solid foil that is placed in front of the main target in the laser-target interaction. The laser pulse with its prepulses then needs to burn through it which can improve the laser pulse contrast and its intensity profile. This includes the generation of a steep rising front [3] and intensity increase [4] . The new pulse shape can improve the consequent ion acceleration from the additional target [5] and reduce the development of short-wavelength instabilities [6]. In this work, we study the effects of the plasma shutter on ion acceleration from an additional target with the help of 2D and 3D PIC simulations using code EPOCH [7] . We also consider a setup using two plasma shutters, where the first of them is expanded by prepulses simulated by hydrodynamic simulations. We demonstrate a substantial increase in maximal energy of accelerated heavy ions when a thin Si3N4 plasma shutter is added into the interaction of a PW-class laser pulse with the silver main target [5]. Our simulations are also visualized in our custom made web-based application with a virtual reality mode [8].
Supported by HIFI (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000449), Panosc (No. 823852) and IT4I (e-INFRA CZ, ID:90140)
References:
[1] S. A. Reed et al., Applied Physics Letters 94, 201117 (2009).
[2] S. Palaniyappan et al., Nature Physics 8, 763-769 (2012).
[3] V. A. Vshivkov et al., Physics of Plasmas. 5, 2727 (1998).
[4] M. Jirka et al., Physical Review Research 3, 033175 (2021).
[5] M. Matys et al., Proc. SPIE 11779, 117790Q (2021).
[6] M. Matys et al., High Energy Density Physics 36,100844 (2020).
[7] T. D. Arber et al., PPCF 57, 113001 (2015).
[8] M. Danielova et al., EuroVis 2019 - Posters, 20191145 (2019).
