Proton acceleration by collisionless shocks using a supersonic H 2 gas-jet target and high-power infrared laser pulses

P. Puyuelo-Valdes (1) , J. Henares (1) , F. Hannachi (1) , T. Ceccotti (2, 3) , J. Domange (1) , M. Ehret (4, 5) , E. d'Humieres (4) , L. Lancia (6) , Jean-Raphaël Marquès (6) , X. Ribeyre (4) , J.J Santos (4) , V. Tikhonchuk (4) , M. Tarisien (1)

1 CENBG - Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan
2 LIDYL - Laboratoire Interactions, Dynamiques et Lasers (ex SPAM)
3 PHI - Physique à Haute Intensité
4 CELIA - Centre d'Etudes Lasers Intenses et Applications
5 Institut für Kernphysik [Darmstadt]
6 LULI - Laboratoire pour l'utilisation des lasers intenses

For most laser-driven ion acceleration applications, a well-characterized intense ion beam with a low divergence and a controllable energy spectrum produced at a high repetition rate is needed. Gas-jet targets have given promising results in simulations, and they have several technical advantages for high-repetition-rate lasers. In this work, we report on proton acceleration to energies up to 6 MeV using a supersonic H2 gas-jet target at the LULI PICO2000 laser facility. The experimental results are compared with the plasma hydrodynamics and the particle-in-cell simulations to identify the acceleration mechanisms at play.

Domaines: Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]; Physique des accélérateurs [physics.acc-ph]

P. Puyuelo-Valdes, J. Henares, F. Hannachi, T. Ceccotti, J. Domange, et al.. Proton acceleration by collisionless shocks using a supersonic H 2 gas-jet target and high-power infrared laser pulses. Physics of Plasmas, 2019, 26 (12), pp.123109. ⟨10.1063/1.5116337⟩. ⟨hal-02418729⟩