Proton Acceleration Driven by a Nanosecond Laser from a Cryogenic Thin Solid-Hydrogen Ribbon

Authors

D. Margarone, A. Velyhan, J. Dostal, J. Ullschmied, J. P. Perin, D. Chatain, S. Garcia, P. Bonnay, T. Pisarczyk, R. Dudzak, M. Rosinski, J. Krasa, L. Giuffrida, J. Prokupek, V. Scuderi, J. Psikal, M. Kucharik, M. De Marco, J. Cikhardt, E. Krousky, Z. Kalinowska, T. Chodukowski, G. A. P. Cirrone, G. Korn

Citation
Physical Review X 6 (2016) 041030
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevX.6.041030
Year
2016

 A high-power pulsed laser is focused onto a solid-hydrogen target to accelerate forward a collimated stream of protons in the range 0.1–1 MeV. This result is achieved for the first time through the combination of a sophisticated target system (H2 thin ribbon) operating at cryogenic temperature (∼10 K). Both the H plasma and the accelerated proton beam are fully characterized by in situ and ex situ diagnostics.

image16.jpg
Recorded raw interferometry snapshots corresponding plasma density maps.