Ion acceleration in subcritical density plasma via interaction of intense laser pulse with cluster-gas target

Fukuda, Yuji; Faenov, A.*; Tampo, Motonobu; Pikuz, T.*; Nakamura, Tatsufumi; Kando, Masaki; Hayashi, Yukio; Yogo, Akifumi; Sakaki, Hironao; Kameshima, Takashi*; et al.

Progress in Ultrafast Intense Laser Science VII, p.225 - 240, 2011/05

http://www.springer.com/physics/atomic,+molecular,+optical+%26+plasma+physics/book/978-3-642-18326-3

We present substantial enhancement of the accelerated ion energies up to 10-20 MeV per nucleon by utilizing the unique properties of the cluster-gas target irradiated with 40-fs laser pulses of only 150 mJ energy, corresponding to approximately tenfold increase in the ion energies compared to previous experiments using thin foil targets. A particle-in-cell simulation infers that the high energy ions are generated at the rear side of the target due to the formation of a strong dipole vortex structure in sub-critical density plasmas. The demonstrated method can be important in the development of efficient laser ion accelerators for hadron therapy and other applications.

Submicron ionography of nanostructures using a femtosecond- laser-driven-cluster-based source

Faenov, A. Y.; Pikuz, T. A.*; Fukuda, Yuji; Kando, Masaki; Kotaki, Hideyuki; Homma, Takayuki; Kawase, Keigo; Kameshima, Takashi*; Pirozhkov, A. S.; Yogo, Akifumi; et al.

Applied Physics Letters, 95(10), p.101107_1 - 101107_3, 2009/09

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3210785

Application of snow nanograin targets for the generation of fast ions in femtosecond laser plasma

Faenov, A. Y.; Magunov, A. I.*; Pikuz, S. A.*; Gasilov, S. V.*; Skobelev, I. Yu.*; Palchan, T.*; Zigler, A.*; Henis, Z.*

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, 107(3), p.351 - 355, 2008/09

Generation of fast ions by an efficient coupling of high power laser into snow nanotubes

Palchan, T.*; Henis, Z.*; Faenov, A. Y.; Magunov, A. I.*; Pikuz, S. A.*; Gasilov, S. V.*; Skobelev, I. Yu.*; Zigler, A.*

Applied Physics Letters, 91(25), p.251501_1 - 251501_3, 2007/12

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2820388

Spectroscopic characterization of an ultrashort-pulse-laser-driven Ar cluster target incorporating both Boltzmann and particle-in-cell models

Sherrill, M. E.*; Abdallah, J. Jr.*; Csanak, G.*; Dodd, E. S.*; Fukuda, Yuji; Akahane, Yutaka; Aoyama, Makoto; Inoue, Norihiro*; Ueda, Hideki*; Yamakawa, Koichi; et al.

Physical Review E, 73(6), p.066404_1 - 066404_6, 2006/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.73.066404

A model that solves simultaneously both the electron and atomic kinetics was used to generate synthetic He X-ray spectra to characterize a high intensity ultrashort laser driven Ar cluster target experiment. In particular, level populations were obtained from a detailed collisional-radiative model where collisional rates were computed from a time varying electron distribution function obtained from the solution of the zero dimensional Boltzmann equation. In addition, aparticle-in-cell simulation was used to model the laser interaction with the cluster target and provided the initial electron energy distribution function (EEDF) for the Boltzmann solver. This study suggests that the high density plasma contribution to the time-integrated He spectrum was in a highly non-equilibrium state in both the EEDF and the ion level populations and provides a prediction of 5.7 ps for the average cluster integrity time for this high density state.

Measurement of ' X-ray transitions from 1 m Kr clusters irradiated by high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses

Hansen, S. B.*; Fournier, K. B.*; Faenov, A. Y.*; Magunov, A. I.*; Pikuz, T. A.*; Skobelev, I. Y.*; Fukuda, Yuji; Akahane, Yutaka; Aoyama, Makoto; Inoue, Norihiro*; et al.

Physical Review E, 71(1), p.016408_1 - 016408_9, 2005/01

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.71.016408

X-ray line emission from ' transitions in Ne-like Kr and nearby ions has been observed from 1 m Kr clusters irradiated by fs-scale laser pulses at the JAERI facility in Kyoto, Japan. The dependence of X-ray spectral features and intensity on the incident laser intensity is rather weak, indicating that the 1-2 ps cluster lifetimes limit the number of ions beyond Ne-like Kr that can be produced by collisional ionization. A collisional-radiative model based on the relativistic multiconfigured FAC code has been constructed and used to determine that the cluster plasma has electron densities near 10 cm, temperature of a few hundred eV and hot electron fraction of a few percent.

Microdroplet evolution induced by a laser pulse

Smirnov, M. B.*; Skobelev, I. Y.*; Magunov, A. I.*; Faenov, A. Y.*; Pikuz, T. A.*; Fukuda, Yuji; Yamakawa, Koichi; Akahane, Yutaka; Aoyama, Makoto; Inoue, Norihiro*; et al.

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, 98(6), p.1123 - 1132, 2004/06

Interaction between high-power ultrashort laser pulse and giant clusters (microdroplets) consisting of 10 to 10 atoms is considered. The microdroplet size is comparable to the laser wavelength. A model of the evolution of a microdroplet plasma induced by a high-power laser pulse is developed, and the processes taking place after interaction with the pulse are analyzed. It is shown theoretically that the plasma is superheated: its temperature is approximately equal to the ionization potential of an ion having a typical charge. The microdroplet plasma parameters are independent of the pulse shape and duration. The theoretical conclusions are supported by experimental studies of X-ray spectra conducted at JAERI, where a 100-terawatt Ti-sapphire lasersystem was used to irradiate krypton and xenon microdroplets by laser pulses with pulse widths of 30 to 500 fs and intensities of 610 to 210 W/cm.

Time-dependent Boltzmann kinetic model of X-rays produced by ultrashort-pulse laser irradiation of argon clusters

Abdallah, J. Jr.*; Csanak, G.*; Fukuda, Yuji; Akahane, Yutaka; Aoyama, Makoto; Inoue, Norihiro*; Ueda, Hideki; Yamakawa, Koichi; Faenov, A. Y.*; Magunov, A. I.*; et al.

Physical Review A, 68(6), p.063201_1 - 063201_8, 2003/12

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.68.063201

The Boltzmann Equation and a detailed collisional radiative model are solved simultaneously as a function of time to model the time integrated X-ray spectra of the transient plasma produced by a high intensity ultrafast laser source. The results are in agreement with highly resolved F-like to He-like K-shell emission spectra recorded recently during ultrashort laser experiments with argon cluster targets in Japan.

Observation of MeV multicharged ions and hot electrons accelerated by a 65-fs laser pulse

Auguste, T.*; Faenov, A. Y.*; Fukumoto, Ichiro; Hulin, S.*; Magunov, A. I.*; Monot, P.*; D'Oliveira, P.*; Pikuz, T. A.*; Sasaki, Akira; Sharkov, B. Y.*; et al.

Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer, 71(2-6), p.147 - 156, 2001/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4073(01)00064-4

no abstracts in English

Ion acceleration in the interaction of a short pulse laser with a cluster-gas target

Fukuda, Yuji; Faenov, A. Y.; Tampo, Motonobu; Pikuz, T. A.*; Nakamura, Tatsufumi; Kando, Masaki; Hayashi, Yukio; Homma, Takayuki; Kawase, Keigo; Kotaki, Hideyuki; et al.

no journal, , 

An approach for accelerating ions, with the use of a cluster-gas target and an ultrashort pulse laser of 150-mJ energy and 40-fs duration, is presented. Ions with energy 10-20 MeV per nucleon having a small divergence (full angle) of 3.4 are generated in the forward direction, corresponding to approximately tenfold increase in the ion energies compared to previous experiments using solid targets. It is inferred from a particle-in-cell simulation that the high energy ions are generated at the rear side of the target due to the formation of a strong dipole vortex structure in subcritical density plasmas.