Energetic ion beams are produced during the interaction of
ultrahigh-intensity, short laser pulses with plasmas. These
laser-produced ion beams have important applications ranging from the
fast ignition of thermonuclear targets to proton imaging, deep proton
lithography, medical physics, and injectors for conventional
accelerators. Although the basic physical mechanisms of ion beam
generation in the plasma produced by the laser pulse interaction with
the target are common to all these applications, each application
requires a specific optimization of the ion beam properties, that is,
an appropriate choice of the target design and of the laser pulse
intensity, shape, and duration.
Production of ion beams in high-power laser–plasma
interactions and their applications