title: MeV negative ion source from ultra-intense laser-matter interaction.
abstract: Experimental demonstration of negative ion acceleration to MeV energies from sub-micron size droplets of water spray irradiated by ultra-intense laser pulses is presented. Thanks to the specific target configuration and laser parameters, more than 10(9) negative ions per steradian solid angle in 5% energy bandwidth are accelerated in a stable and reliable manner. To our knowledge, by virtue of the ultra-short duration of the emission, this is by far the brightest negative ion source reported. The data also indicate the existence of beams of neutrals with at least similar numbers and energies.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics and Physics, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast BT71NN, United Kingdom. s.teravetisyan@qub.ac.uk
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ter-Avetisyan
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ramakrishna
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Doria
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Borghesi
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Andreev
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Steinke
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schnürer
authors.forename: P V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Nickles
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tikhonchuk