Production of proton beams with narrow-band energy spectra from laser-irradiated ultrathin foils.
Three-dimensional gridless particle simulations of proton acceleration via irradiation of a very thin foil by a short-pulse, high-intensity laser have been performed to evaluate recently proposed microstructured target configurations. It is found that a pure proton microdot target does not by itself result in a quasimonoenergetic proton beam. Such a beam can only be produced with a very lightly doped target, in qualitative agreement with one-dimensional theory. The simulations suggest that beam quality in current experiments could be dramatically improved by choosing microdot compositions with a 5-10 times lower proton fraction.
Robinson
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AP
Central Laser Facility, Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxon, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom.
Gibbon
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