Stable high-energy proton acceleration with water-leaf targets driven by intense laser pulses

Laser plasma acceleration techniques hold promise for generating compact, high-flux relativistic proton bunches. However, the inherent instability of laser-plasma interactions and the requirement for reliable proton source stability often hinder their practical applications. In this paper, we explor...

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Main Authors: L. R. He, M. Bachhammer, F. Balling, S. Biswas, L. Doyle, S. Gerlach, I. Hofrichter, M. Kharbedia, J. Liese, M. De Marco, T. Pohle, A. Praßelsperger, A.-K. Schmidt, F. Schweiger, M. F. Kling, S. Karsch, J. Schreiber
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2025-05-01
Series:Physical Review Research
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.023190
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Summary:Laser plasma acceleration techniques hold promise for generating compact, high-flux relativistic proton bunches. However, the inherent instability of laser-plasma interactions and the requirement for reliable proton source stability often hinder their practical applications. In this paper, we explore the potential of a water-leaf target irradiated by 27 fs laser pulses with energies ranging from 1.1 to 9.9 J and peak intensities spanning from 10^{20} to 10^{21}W/cm^{2}. We finally conducted a series of 400 shots with a peak power of 300 TW, producing proton energies up to 30 MeV and peak flux beyond 10^{9}protonsMeV^{−1}msr^{−1}. These results demonstrate the possibility of long-term, stable, and efficient proton acceleration at high repetition rates, addressing a key challenge in laser-plasma acceleration.
ISSN:2643-1564