Laser pre-pulse effects on ultra-high intensity laser-solid target interaction

Koga, J. K.; Esirkepov, T. Z.; Sunahara, Atsushi*; Nagatomo, Hideo*; Nishihara, Katsunobu*; Sagisaka, Akito; Kando, Masaki; Bulanov, S. V.

We have theoretically investigated the effect of an externally applied magnetic field on the pre-plasma acceleration from a laser-solid target interaction. We have found that the magnetic field can reduce the pre-plasma scale length, thus making possible higher energy protons accelerated from the main pulse, pre-plasma and solid target interaction.