Review of laser-driven ion sources and their applications

Daido, Hiroyuki; Nishiuchi, Mamiko; Pirozhkov, A. S.

This paper reviews firstly, the historical background of the studies including the early laser-matter interaction studies on the energetic ion generation. Secondly, we describe several proposed mechanisms of energetic proton and/or ion generation. We also review theoretical proposals of quasi-mono-energetic ion beam generation. Thirdly, the experimental results on the proton/ion generation are reviewed. For example, we list up the various experimental results to compare them with the theoretical predictions and simulations. The fourth topic of this review includes potential and future practical applications of laser driven proton or ion sources.