title: Dominance of radiation pressure in ion acceleration with linearly polarized pulses at intensities of 10(21) W cm(-2).
abstract: A novel regime is proposed where, by employing linearly polarized laser pulses at intensities 10(21) W cm(-2) (2 orders of magnitude lower than discussed in previous work [T. Esirkepov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 175003 (2004)]), ions are dominantly accelerated from ultrathin foils by the radiation pressure and have monoenergetic spectra. In this regime, ions accelerated from the hole-boring process quickly catch up with the ions accelerated by target normal sheath acceleration, and they then join in a single bunch, undergoing a hybrid light-sail-target normal sheath acceleration. Under an appropriate coupling condition between foil thickness, laser intensity, and pulse duration, laser radiation pressure can be dominant in this hybrid acceleration. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that 1.26 GeV quasimonoenergetic C(6+) beams are obtained by linearly polarized laser pulses at intensities of 10(21) W cm(-2).
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kar
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geissler
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gibbon
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zepf
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Borghesi