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Description
The shaping of a time profile of the high-intensity laser pulse can substantially influence
electron and ion dynamics in the irradiated target. It was shown that a steep time profile could
mitigate the development of transverse short-wavelength instabilities with Rayleigh-Taylor-like
features to use long-wavelength corrugation of the target for quasi-monoenergetic ion accel-
eration [1]. The steep rising front of the laser pulse can also enhance photon emission from
under-dense targets [2].
One of the ways to produce the steep rising front is the use of the plasma shutter [3, 4, 5],
a thin solid foil placed in front of the target. This approach is also beneficial for the mitigation of
the prepulses accompanying the main laser pulse. Moreover, the intensity of the laser pulse can
locally increase after burning through the plasma shutter [6]. The combination of these effects
can increase the energy of ions accelerated from the target [7].
In this work, we study the effect of the steep rising front generated by the plasma shutter
on heavy ion acceleration from the target. We used 3D and 2D particle-in-cell simulations using code
EPOCH [8]. In our simulations, we demonstrate an increase of maximal energy and quality of accelerated ions.
Namely, a substantial decrease in their divergence is observed when the steep-front laser pulse
is used.
Our work is supported by High Field Initiative (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000449).
References:
[1] M. Matys, K. Nishihara, M. Kecova, et al., High Energy Density Physics 36, 100844 (2020)
[2] M. Jirka, O. Klimo, Y.-J. Gu and S. Weber, Scientific Reports, 10, 8887 (2020)
[3] V. A. Vshivkov, N. M. Naumova, F. Pegoraro and S. V. Bulanov, Physics of Plasmas 5, 7 (1998)
[4] S. A. Reed, T. Matsuoka, S. Bulanov, et al., Applied Physics Letters 94, 20 (2009)
[5] S. Palaniyappan, B. M. Hegelich, H. C. Wu, et al., Nature Physics 8, 10 (2012)
[6] M. Jirka, O. Klimo and M. Matys Phys. Rev. Research 3, 033175 (2021)
[7] M. Matys, S. V. Bulanov, M. Kecova, et. al., Proc. SPIE 11779, 117790Q (2021)
[8] T. D. Arber, K. Bennett, C. S. Brady, et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 57, 113001 (2015)
