Efficiency of ion acceleration by a relativistically strong laser pulse in an underdense plasma

Abstract
A particle-in-cell simulation is used to investigate ion acceleration by a femtosecond laser pulse propagating in an underdense plasma slab. In plasma slabs with different thicknesses, the ions are found to be accelerated by different mechanisms. It is shown that, for laser pulse intensities in the range (5–10)×1019 W/cm2, the ions are accelerated near the plasma-vacuum interface.