Dense monoenergetic proton beams from chirped laser-plasma interaction

Abstract

Interaction of a frequency-chirped laser pulse with single protons and a hydrogen plasma cell is studied analytically and by means of particle-in-cell simulations, respectively. Feasibility of generating ultra-intense (10^7 particles per bunch) and phase-space collimated beams of protons (energy spread of about 1 %) is demonstrated. Phase synchronization of the protons and the laser field, guaranteed by the appropriate chirping of the laser pulse, allows the particles to gain sufficient kinetic energy (around 250 MeV) required for such applications as hadron cancer therapy, from state-of-the-art laser systems of intensities of the order of 10^21 W/cm^2.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Dynamics and control of the expansion of finite-size plasmas produced in ultraintense laser-matter interactions
• Intense high-quality medical proton beams via laser fields
• Direct Acceleration of Ions With Variable-frequency Lasers

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Extremely high-intensity laser interactions with fundamental quantum systems
• Fields of an ultrashort tightly-focused laser pulse
• Electron laser acceleration in vacuum by a quadratically chirped laser pulse
• Chirped standing wave acceleration of ions with intense lasers
• High field terahertz emission from relativistic laser-driven plasma wakefields
• Controlled transition to different proton acceleration regimes: near-critical density plasmas driven by circularly polarized few cycle pulse
• Optical force acting on strongly driven atoms in free space or modified reservoirs