Laser-driven multi-charged heavy ion beam acceleration

Nishiuchi, Mamiko; Sakaki, Hironao; Esirkepov, T. Z.; Nishio, Katsuhisa   ; Pikuz, T. A.*; Faenov, A. Ya.*; Pirozhkov, A. S.; Sagisaka, Akito; Ogura, Koichi; Kanasaki, Masato; Kiriyama, Hiromitsu; Fukuda, Yuji; Kando, Masaki; Yamauchi, Tomoya*; Watanabe, Yukinobu*; Bulanov, S. V.; Kondo, Kiminori; Imai, Kenichi; Nagamiya, Shoji*

Experimental demonstration of multi-charged heavy ion acceleration from the interaction between the ultra-intense short pulse laser system and the metal target is presented. The laser pulse of 10 J laser energy, 36 fs pulse width, and the contrast level of 10 from 200 TW class Ti:sapphire J-KAREN laser system at JAEA is used in the experiment. Almost fully stripped Fe ions accelerated up to 0.9 GeV are demonstrated. This is achieved by the high intensity laser field of 10Wcm interacting with the solid density target. The demonstrated iron ions with high charge to mass ratio (Q/M) is difficult to be achieved by the conventional heavy ion source technique in the accelerators.