Recombination effects in laser-driven acceleration of heavy ions

Recombination effects are shown to modify the charge-state distribution achieved in the acceleration of heavy ions during high-intensity laser-solid interactions. A recombination package has been developed for particle-in-cell codes, which includes dielectronic, radiative, and three-body recombination. One-dimensional simulations were then performed to model a recent experiment, where 4.1×10^{20}Wcm^{-2} laser pulses heated thin gold targets to produce gold ion beams. Simulations show that the ion beams from 100-nm targets were unaffected by recombination, but that recombination caused charge states to drop in 300-nm targets, similar to experimental observations. These differences were attributed to target temperature, as 300-nm targets were heated to lower temperatures than 100-nm targets during the laser-target interaction, causing ions to spend more time in environments where recombination rates dominated ionization rates.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical review. E
Published
2025-06-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.111.065209
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.74

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article

Recombination effects in laser-driven acceleration of heavy ions

Masoud Afshari, Jorge Machado, Stuart Morris, S. Fritzsche et al.
2 citations
Physical review. E
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
3.74
article

Recombination effects in laser-driven acceleration of heavy ions

Masoud Afshari, Jorge Machado, Stuart Morris, S. Fritzsche, D. O. Gericke, J. P. Santos
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Recombination effects are shown to modify the charge-state distribution achieved in the acceleration of heavy ions during high-intensity laser-solid interactions. A recombination package has been developed for particle-in-cell codes, which includes dielectronic, radiative, and three-body recombination. One-dimensional simulations were then performed to model a recent experiment, where 4.1×10^{20}Wcm^{-2} laser pulses heated thin gold targets to produce gold ion beams. Simulations show that the ion beams from 100-nm targets were unaffected by recombination, but that recombination caused charge states to drop in 300-nm targets, similar to experimental observations. These differences were attributed to target temperature, as 300-nm targets were heated to lower temperatures than 100-nm targets during the laser-target interaction, causing ions to spend more time in environments where recombination rates dominated ionization rates.

Physical review. EVol. 111(6)
Helmholtz Institute Jena (DE), GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research (DE), Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (DE), University of Warwick (GB), Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (DE), Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (PT)
University of Warwick, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Leibniz-Rechenzentrum
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics
3.74
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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