Characterization of proton beams accelerated by high-intensity laser pulses

Yogo, Akifumi; Ogura, Koichi; Sagisaka, Akito; Orimo, Satoshi; Ma, J.-L.; Mori, Michiaki; Nishiuchi, Mamiko; Pirozhkov, A. S.; Esirkepov, T. Z.; Bulanov, S. V.; Daido, Hiroyuki; Oishi, Yuji*; Nayuki, Takuya*; Fujii, Takashi*; Nemoto, Koshichi*; Nakamura, Shu*; Noda, Akira*; Nagatomo, Hideo*

Protons having energies up to 3.8 MeV are experimentally generated by the -polarized, 45 fs, W/cm laser pulse interacting with a near-critical plasma cloud produced by the irradiation of the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) pedestal at an intensity of W/cm onto a 7.5-m-thick polyimide foil target. A two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation reveals that the protons are accelerated efficiently when the ion filament is formed inside the plasma channel and the quasistatic magnetic field is generated on the rear side.