Kinetic and finite ion mass effects on the transition to relativistic self-induced transparency in laser-driven ion acceleration - Sorbonne Université Access content directly
Journal Articles New Journal of Physics Year : 2017

Kinetic and finite ion mass effects on the transition to relativistic self-induced transparency in laser-driven ion acceleration

Abstract

We study kinetic effects responsible for the transition to relativistic self-induced transparency in the interaction of a circularly-polarized laser-pulse with an overdense plasma and their relation to hole-boring (HB) and ion acceleration. It is demonstrated using particle-in-cell simulations and an analysis of separatrices in single-electron phase-space, that ion motion can suppress fast electron escape to the vacuum, which would otherwise lead to transition to the relativistic transparency regime. A simple analytical estimate shows that for large laser pulse amplitude a 0 the time scale over which ion motion becomes important is much shorter than usually anticipated. As a result of enhanced ion mobility, the threshold density above which HB occurs decreases with the charge-to-mass ratio. Moreover, the transition threshold is seen to depend on the laser temporal profile, due to the effect that the latter has on electron heating. Finally, we report a new regime in which a transition from relativistic transparency to HB occurs dynamically during the course of the interaction. It is shown that, for a fixed laser intensity, this dynamic transition regime allows optimal ion acceleration in terms of both energy and energy spread.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
Siminos_2017_New_J._Phys._19_123042.pdf (1.57 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origin Publication funded by an institution
Loading...

Dates and versions

hal-01679653 , version 1 (10-01-2018)

Licence

Identifiers

Cite

E. Siminos, M. Grech, B. Svedung Wettervik, T. Fülöp. Kinetic and finite ion mass effects on the transition to relativistic self-induced transparency in laser-driven ion acceleration. New Journal of Physics, 2017, 19, ⟨10.1088/1367-2630/aa8e66⟩. ⟨hal-01679653⟩
398 View
153 Download

Altmetric

Share

Gmail Mastodon Facebook X LinkedIn More