title: Synchronized Ion Acceleration by Ultraintense Slow Light.
abstract: An effective scheme of synchronized laser-triggered ion acceleration and the corresponding theoretical model are proposed for a slow light pulse of relativistic intensity, which penetrates into a near-critical-density plasma, strongly slows, and then increases its group velocity during propagation within a target. The 3D particle-in-cell simulations confirm this concept for proton acceleration by a femtosecond petawatt-class laser pulse experiencing relativistic self-focusing, quantify the characteristics of the generated protons, and demonstrate a significant increase of their energy compared with the proton energy generated from optimized ultrathin solid dense foils.
authors.affiliation: P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow 119991, Russia.|Center for Fundamental and Applied Research, Dukhov Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA), Moscow 127055, Russia.
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Brantov
authors.affiliation: P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow 119991, Russia.|Center for Fundamental and Applied Research, Dukhov Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA), Moscow 127055, Russia.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Govras
authors.affiliation: Center for Fundamental and Applied Research, Dukhov Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA), Moscow 127055, Russia.|Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 125047, Russia.
authors.forename: V F
authors.initials: VF
authors.lastname: Kovalev
authors.affiliation: P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow 119991, Russia.|Center for Fundamental and Applied Research, Dukhov Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA), Moscow 127055, Russia.
authors.forename: V Yu
authors.initials: VY
authors.lastname: Bychenkov