title: Observation of gigawatt-class THz pulses from a compact laser-driven particle accelerator.
abstract: We report the observation of subpicosecond terahertz (T-ray) pulses with energies ≥460 μJ from a laser-driven ion accelerator, thus rendering the peak power of the source higher even than that of state-of-the-art synchrotrons. Experiments were performed with intense laser pulses (up to 5×10(19) W/cm(2)) to irradiate thin metal foil targets. Ion spectra measured simultaneously showed a square law dependence of the T-ray yield on particle number. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show the presence of transient currents at the target rear surface which could be responsible for the strong T-ray emission.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optics and Quantumelectronics, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Jena, Germany. amrutha.gopal@uni-jena.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gopal
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Herzer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reinhard
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ziegler
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brömmel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karmakar
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gibbon
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Dillner
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: H-G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Paulus