Enhanced proton acceleration from an ultrathin double-foil target with circularly polarized laser pulses
The generation of proton beams using ultrathin double-foil targets driven by circularly polarized laser pulses is explored experimentally. A significant increase up to 2.7 times in proton maximum energies is observed with respect to a typical single-foil target. The total number of protons was increased by a factor of 6. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations agree with the experimental data and suggest that such an increase is attributable to a more pronounced radiation pressure acceleration process when the circularly polarized laser pulse propagates through the first nanometer thin foil and undergoes strong pulse shaping via relativistic nonlinearities.
Authors
- Hao Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0189-1784)
- Yi Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0430-5867)
- Z. Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6408-6837)
- Yuxin Leng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2716-4318)
- Jianhui Bin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6381-1394)
- Yifan Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8439-2245)
- Yan Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7329-0382)
- Xun Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7961-7908)
- Ming Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3912-8530)
- Wei Peng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4513-8970)
- Jianxing Zhuang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8627-1543)
- Yangfan Shao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7626-2096)
- Ruxin Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2603-9814)
Institutions
- Shanghai University (CN)
- ShanghaiTech University (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physics of Plasmas
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0249281
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.87
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China