Coulomb explosion effect and the maximum energy of protons accelerated by high-power lasers
- 25 March 2005
- journal article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review E
- Vol. 71 (3), 036412
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.71.036412
Abstract
The acceleration of light ions (protons) through the interaction of a high-power laser pulse with a double-layer target is theoretically studied by means of two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and a one-dimensional analytical model. It is shown that the maximum energy acquired by the accelerated light ions (protons) depends on the physical characteristics of a heavy-ion layer (electron-ion mass ratio and effective charge state of the ions). In our theoretical model, the hydrodynamic equations for both electron and heavy-ion species are solved and the test-particle approximation for the light ions (protons) is applied. The heavy-ion motion is found to modify the longitudinal electric field distribution, thus changing the acceleration conditions for the protons.Keywords
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