Simulation Study of Tabletop Two-Stage Laser Proton Acceleration

Shogo Isayama^1*, Shih Hung Chen¹, Yao Li Liu¹, Yasuhiro Kuramitsu²

¹Physics, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
²Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

* Presenter:Shogo Isayama, email:isayamashogo@gmail.com

Due to its excellent feature of the large acceleration gradient with a tabletop facility, laser-driven ion acceleration possesses potential for realizing the compact high energy ion sources for wide applications, including cancer therapy, high-resolution radiography and fast ignition-fusion. Near 100 MeV protons can be generated in experiments using PW-level laser pulses, which is huge in its size and its cost. We propose an efficient hybrid scheme using tabletop (tens of TW) dual-laser pulses with a solid density (SD) and near critical density (NCD) foils in tandem. The 2D particle- in-cell (PIC) simulation shows the hybrid scheme of radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) and laser wake field acceleration (LWFA) can considerably enhance the maximum proton energy to 149 MeV, which is about three times of the proton energy achieved by only using RPA and LWFA scheme.

Keywords: Laser driven ion acceleration, Laser wakefield acceleration, Radiation pressure acceleration