Quasi Mono-Energetic Ion Acceleration from Mass-Limited Targets with Realistic Laser Contrast

We present first-principle, leadership-scale particle-in-cell simulations drawing a complete and consistent picture of the complex ion acceleration from truly isolated, spherical, mass-limited targets driven by a 500fs high-power laser with realistic contrast. Performing large-scale 3D3V simulations with PIConGPU on the Titan supercomputer allowed to correctly predict experimental observables such as charge, diction and divergence of generated mono-energetic, pencil-like proton beams that were otherwise unreproducible in simulations with reduced geometry or resolution.