Radiation-Pressure Acceleration of Ion Beams Driven by Circularly Polarized Laser Pulses
- Henig, A.
- Steinke, S.
- Schnuerer, M.
- Sokollik, T.
- Hoerlein, R.
- Kiefer, D.
- Jung, D.
- Schreiber, J.
- Hegelich, B. M.
- Yan, X. Q.
- Meyer-ter-Vehn, J.
- Tajima, T.
- Nickles, P. V.
- Sandner, W.
- Habs, D.
DOIAbstract
We present experimental studies on ion acceleration from ultrathin diamondlike carbon foils irradiated by ultrahigh contrast laser pulses of energy 0.7 J focused to peak intensities of 5x10(19) W/cm(2). A reduction in electron heating is observed when the laser polarization is changed from linear to circular, leading to a pronounced peak in the fully ionized carbon spectrum at the optimum foil thickness of 5.3 nm. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations reveal that those C(6+) ions are for the first time dominantly accelerated in a phase-stable way by the laser radiation pressure.Physics, MultidisciplinarySCI(E)EI205ARTICLE24null10
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