Acceleration of highly charged GeV Fe ions from a low-Z substrate by intense femtosecond laser

Nishiuchi, Mamiko; Sakaki, Hironao; Esirkepov, T. Z.; Nishio, Katsuhisa   ; Pikuz, T.*; Faenov, A.*; Skobelev, I. Yu.*; Orlandi, R.   ; Sako, Hiroyuki   ; Pirozhkov, A. S.; Matsukawa, Kenya*; Sagisaka, Akito; Ogura, Koichi; Kanasaki, Masato; Kiriyama, Hiromitsu; Fukuda, Yuji; Koura, Hiroyuki   ; Kando, Masaki; Yamauchi, Tomoya*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Bulanov, S. V.; Kondo, Kiminori; Imai, Kenichi; Nagamiya, Shoji*

Almost fully stripped Fe ions accelerated up to 0.9 GeV are demonstrated with a 200 TW femtosecond high-intensity laser irradiating a micron-thick Al foil with Fe impurity on the surface. An energetic low-emittance high-density beam of heavy ions with a large charge-to-mass ratio can be obtained, which is useful for many applications, such as a compact radio isotope source in combination with conventional technology.