title: Role of target material in proton acceleration from thin foils irradiated by ultrashort laser pulses.
abstract: We report on the proton acceleration studies from thin metallic foils of varying atomic number (Z) and thicknesses, investigated using a 45 fs, 10 TW Ti:sapphire laser system. An optimum foil thickness was observed for efficient proton acceleration for our laser conditions, dictated by the laser ASE prepulse and hot electron propagation behavior inside the material. The hydrodynamic simulations for ASE prepulse support the experimental observation. The observed maximum proton energy at different thicknesses for a given element is in good agreement with the reported scaling laws. The results with foils of different atomic number Z suggest that a judicious choice of the foil material can enhance the proton acceleration efficiency, resulting into higher proton energy.
authors.affiliation: Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tayyab
authors.affiliation: Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bagchi
authors.affiliation: Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ramakrishna
authors.affiliation: Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mandal
authors.affiliation: Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Upadhyay
authors.affiliation: E.T.S.I. Aeronáuticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ramis
authors.affiliation: Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Chakera
authors.affiliation: Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Naik
authors.affiliation: Laser Plasma Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013, India.
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D017607:Aluminum Compounds; D000537:Aluminum Oxide; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003300:Copper; D004583:Electrons; D017612:Gold Compounds; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D007834:Lasers; D009532:Nickel; D011522:Protons; D011827:Radiation; D013635:Tantalum; D014025:Titanium
chemical_list: D017607:Aluminum Compounds; D017612:Gold Compounds; D011522:Protons; D013635:Tantalum; D003300:Copper; D009532:Nickel; D014025:Titanium; D000537:Aluminum Oxide