Low divergence proton beams from a laser-plasma accelerator at kHz repetition rate

• Published in: Physical review. Accelerators and beams Vol. 25; no. 9; p. 093402
• Main Authors: Levy, Dan, Andriyash, Igor A., Haessler, Stefan, Kaur, Jaismeen, Ouillé, Marie, Flacco, Alessandro, Kroupp, Eyal, Malka, Victor, Lopez-Martens, Rodrigo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: College Park American Physical Society 01-09-2022
• Subjects: Accelerator Physics; Femtosecond pulsed lasers; Optics; Physics; Plasma Physics; Proton beams; Pulse duration; Repetition
• ISSN: 2469-9888; 2469-9888
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.25.093402

Proton beams with up to 100 pC bunch charge, 0.48 MeV cutoff energy, and divergence as low as 3° were generated from solid targets at kHz repetition rate by a few-mJ femtosecond laser under controlled plasma conditions. The beam spatial profile was measured using a small aperture scanning time-of-flight detector. Detailed parametric studies were performed by varying the surface plasma scale length from 8 to 80 nm and the laser pulse duration from 4 fs to 1.5 ps. Numerical simulations are in good agreement with observations and, together with an in-depth theoretical analysis of the acceleration mechanism, indicate that high repetition rate femtosecond laser technology could be used to produce few-MeV proton beams for applications.