title: Radiation-pressure acceleration of ion beams driven by circularly polarized laser pulses.
abstract: We present experimental studies on ion acceleration from ultrathin diamondlike carbon foils irradiated by ultrahigh contrast laser pulses of energy 0.7 J focused to peak intensities of 5x10(19) W/cm2. A reduction in electron heating is observed when the laser polarization is changed from linear to circular, leading to a pronounced peak in the fully ionized carbon spectrum at the optimum foil thickness of 5.3 nm. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that those C6+ ions are for the first time dominantly accelerated in a phase-stable way by the laser radiation pressure.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, D-85748 Garching, Germany. andreas.henig@mpq.mpg.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Henig
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Steinke
authors.forename: M
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authors.lastname: Schnürer
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authors.lastname: Sokollik
authors.forename: R
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authors.lastname: Hörlein
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authors.lastname: Kiefer
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authors.lastname: Jung
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authors.lastname: Schreiber
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authors.lastname: Hegelich
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authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: J
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authors.lastname: Meyer-ter-Vehn
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authors.lastname: Tajima
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authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Nickles
authors.forename: W
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authors.lastname: Sandner
authors.forename: D
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authors.lastname: Habs