This article is cited in 21 papers

CONFERENCES AND SYMPOSIA

Laser acceleration of ions: recent results and prospects for applications

V. Yu. Bychenkov^ab, A. V. Brantov^ab, E. A. Govras^ab, V. F. Kovalev<sup>ab

a</sup> Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
^b Center for Fundamental and Applied Studies, Dukhov All-Russian Research Institute of Automatics, Moscow

Abstract: We present a brief review of recent theoretical and numerical simulation results on the acceleration of ions from various targets irradiated by high-power femtosecond laser pulses. The results include: the optimization of the laser–plasma acceleration of ions over the thickness of a solid target; a new dependence of the energy of accelerated protons from a semi-transparent foil on the incident pulse energy; a theoretical model of plasma layer expansion in the vacuum for a fixed temperature of heated electrons, describing arbitrary regimes of particle acceleration, from the quasineutral flow of a plasma to Coulomb explosion; analytic theories of the relativistic Coulomb explosion of a spherical microtarget and the radial ponderomotive acceleration of ions from a laser channel in a transparent plasma; and calculations optimizing the production of isotopes for medicine using next-generation lasers.

Keywords: laser pulse, target, particle acceleration, laser channel, plasma expansion, Coulomb explosion, isotope production.

PACS: 01.10.Fv, 52.38.Kd, 52.50.Jm, 52.65.Rr, 87.57.uh


Accepted: October 29, 2014

DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0185.201501f.0077

 English version: Physics–Uspekhi, 2015, 58:1, 71–81

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