scholarly journals Boosted acceleration of protons by tailored ultra-thin foil targets

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vural Kaymak ◽  
Esin Aktan ◽  
Mirela Cerchez ◽  
Bentsian Elkin ◽  
Marc Papenheim ◽  
...  

AbstractWe report on a detailed experimental and numerical study on the boosted acceleration of protons from ultra-thin hemispherical targets utilizing multi-Joule short-pulse laser-systems. For a laser intensity of 1 × 1020 W/cm2 and an on-target energy of only 1.3 J with this setup a proton cut-off energy of 8.5 MeV was achieved, which is a factor of 1.8 higher compared to a flat foil target of the same thickness. While a boost of the acceleration process by additionally injected electrons was observed for sophisticated targets at high-energy laser-systems before, our studies reveal that the process can be utilized over at least two orders of magnitude in intensity and is therefore suitable for a large number of nowadays existing laser-systems. We retrieved a cut-off energy of about 6.5 MeV of proton energy per Joule of incident laser energy, which is a noticeable enhancement with respect to previous results employing this mechanism. The approach presented here has the advantage of using structure-wise simple targets and being sustainable for numerous applications and high repetition rate demands at the same time.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
D. Raffestin ◽  
D. Batani ◽  
J. Caron ◽  
J. Baggio ◽  
G. Boutoux ◽  
...  

The advent of high-energy short-pulse laser beams poses new problems related to radiation protection. The radiation generated in experiments using multipetawatt laser systems leads to prompt doses and potentially to the activation of the materials within the interaction chamber and the experimental hall. Despite many new PW laser facilities are nowadays entering into operation, this question has received little attention until now. In this paper, we evaluate the radiological effects induced by the operation of a high-power laser facility. Two working regimes are considered related to the production of hard X-rays and energetic protons. The methodology is general and may be applied for the design of experiments with any high-power laser systems.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akito Sagisaka ◽  
Hiroyuki Daido ◽  
Akifumi Yogo ◽  
Koichi Ogura ◽  
Satoshi Orimo ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Jens Schwarz ◽  
Patrick Rambo ◽  
Darrell Armstrong ◽  
Marius Schollmeier ◽  
Ian Smith ◽  
...  

The Z-backlighter laser facility primarily consists of two high energy, high-power laser systems. Z-Beamlet laser (ZBL) (Rambo et al., Appl. Opt. 44, 2421 (2005)) is a multi-kJ-class, nanosecond laser operating at 1054 nm which is frequency doubled to 527 nm in order to provide x-ray backlighting of high energy density events on the Z-machine. Z-Petawatt (ZPW) (Schwarz et al., J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 112, 032020 (2008)) is a petawatt-class system operating at 1054 nm delivering up to 500 J in 500 fs for backlighting and various short-pulse laser experiments (see also Figure 10 for a facility overview). With the development of the magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) concept on the Z-machine, the primary backlighting missions of ZBL and ZPW have been adjusted accordingly. As a result, we have focused our recent efforts on increasing the output energy of ZBL from 2 to 4 kJ at 527 nm by modifying the fiber front end to now include extra bandwidth (for stimulated Brillouin scattering suppression). The MagLIF concept requires a well-defined/behaved beam for interaction with the pressurized fuel. Hence we have made great efforts to implement an adaptive optics system on ZBL and have explored the use of phase plates. We are also exploring concepts to use ZPW as a backlighter for ZBL driven MagLIF experiments. Alternatively, ZPW could be used as an additional fusion fuel pre-heater or as a temporally flexible high energy pre-pulse. All of these concepts require the ability to operate the ZPW in a nanosecond long-pulse mode, in which the beam can co-propagate with ZBL. Some of the proposed modifications are complete and most of them are well on their way.


2018 ◽  
Vol 89 (11) ◽  
pp. 115106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genbai Chu ◽  
Tao Xi ◽  
Minghai Yu ◽  
Wei Fan ◽  
Yongqiang Zhao ◽  
...  

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 3321
Author(s):  
Sheng Tan ◽  
Moge Wang ◽  
Jianjun Wu ◽  
Yu Zhang ◽  
Jian Li

To study the plasma plume expansion dynamics of nanosecond laser ablating Al/PTFE, the Al/PTFE propellant was prepared by a molding sintering method and the rapid expansion process of the plasma plume was photographed using fast photography technology. The effects of the proportion of Al, laser energy and ambient pressure on plasma plume expansion dynamics are analyzed. The results show that the plume expansion process of laser ablating Al/PTFE plasma can be divided into three stages and this phenomenon has not been reported in the literature. The Al powder doped in PTFE will block part of the laser transmission into the propellant, thus reducing the laser absorption depth of the propellant. In the case of short pulse laser ablation, the reaction rate between Al and PTFE is optimal when the reductant is slightly higher than the oxidant. As the laser energy increases, the light intensity of the plasma becomes stronger, the plasma size becomes larger and the existence time of plasma becomes longer. In the first stage plume, the plume expands freely at the ambient pressure of 0.005 Pa and the plume expansion distance is linearly related to time, while the shock wave formed at the interface between the plume front and the ambient gas at the ambient pressure of 5 Pa and the expansion can be described by S-T theory.


Author(s):  
L. J. Waxer ◽  
M. J. Guardalben ◽  
J. H. Kelly ◽  
B. E. Kruschwitz ◽  
J. Qiao ◽  
...  

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