Imperial College London
Alternate

DrNicholasDover

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Physics

Research Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 3791nicholas.dover08 Website

 
 
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Location

 

735Blackett LaboratorySouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Dover:2023:10.1038/s41377-023-01083-9,
author = {Dover, NP and Ziegler, T and Assenbaum, S and Bernert, C and Bock, S and Brack, F-E and Cowan, TE and Ditter, EJ and Garten, M and Gaus, L and Goethel, I and Hicks, GS and Kiriyama, H and Kluge, T and Koga, JK and Kon, A and Kondo, K and Kraft, S and Kroll, F and Lowe, HF and Metzkes-Ng, J and Miyatake, T and Najmudin, Z and Püschel, T and Rehwald, M and Reimold, M and Sakaki, H and Schlenvoigt, H-P and Shiokawa, K and Umlandt, MEP and Schramm, U and Zeil, K and Nishiuchi, M},
doi = {10.1038/s41377-023-01083-9},
journal = {Light: Science & Applications},
title = {Enhanced ion acceleration from transparency-driven foils demonstrated at two ultraintense laser facilities},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41377-023-01083-9},
volume = {12},
year = {2023}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Laser-driven ion sources are a rapidly developing technology producing high energy, high peak current beams. Their suitability for applications, such as compact medical accelerators, motivates development of robust acceleration schemes using widely available repetitive ultraintense femtosecond lasers. These applications not only require high beam energy, but also place demanding requirements on the source stability and controllability. This can be seriously affected by the laser temporal contrast, precluding the replication of ion acceleration performance on independent laser systems with otherwise similar parameters. Here, we present the experimental generation of >60 MeV protons and >30 MeV u-1 carbon ions from sub-micrometre thickness Formvar foils irradiated with laser intensities >1021 Wcm2. Ions are accelerated by an extreme localised space charge field 30 TVm-1, over a million times higher than used in conventional accelerators. The field is formed by a rapid expulsion of electrons from the target bulk due to relativistically induced transparency, in which relativistic corrections to the refractive index enables laser transmission through normally opaque plasma. We replicate the mechanism on two different laser facilities and show that the optimum target thickness decreases with improved laser contrast due to reduced pre-expansion. Our demonstration that energetic ions can be accelerated by this mechanism at different contrast levels relaxes laser requirements and indicates interaction parameters for realising application-specific beam delivery.
AU  - Dover,NP
AU  - Ziegler,T
AU  - Assenbaum,S
AU  - Bernert,C
AU  - Bock,S
AU  - Brack,F-E
AU  - Cowan,TE
AU  - Ditter,EJ
AU  - Garten,M
AU  - Gaus,L
AU  - Goethel,I
AU  - Hicks,GS
AU  - Kiriyama,H
AU  - Kluge,T
AU  - Koga,JK
AU  - Kon,A
AU  - Kondo,K
AU  - Kraft,S
AU  - Kroll,F
AU  - Lowe,HF
AU  - Metzkes-Ng,J
AU  - Miyatake,T
AU  - Najmudin,Z
AU  - Püschel,T
AU  - Rehwald,M
AU  - Reimold,M
AU  - Sakaki,H
AU  - Schlenvoigt,H-P
AU  - Shiokawa,K
AU  - Umlandt,MEP
AU  - Schramm,U
AU  - Zeil,K
AU  - Nishiuchi,M
DO  - 10.1038/s41377-023-01083-9
PY  - 2023///
SN  - 2095-5545
TI  - Enhanced ion acceleration from transparency-driven foils demonstrated at two ultraintense laser facilities
T2  - Light: Science & Applications
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41377-023-01083-9
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36914618
UR  - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-023-01083-9
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/106130
VL  - 12
ER  -
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