Stable acceleration of intense proton beams to energies beyond 80 MeV at rep-rated laser systems

We report on experimental investigations of proton acceleration from laser-irradiated solid foils with the Draco-PW laser, where highest proton cut-off energies were achieved for temporal pulse parameters that varied significantlyfrom those of an ideally Fourier transform limited (FTL) pulse. Controlled spectral phase modulation of the driver laser by means of an acousto-optic programmable dispersive filter enabled us to manipulate the temporal shape ofthe last picoseconds around the main pulse and to study the effect on proton acceleration from thin foil targets. The results show that short and asymmetric pulses generated by positive third order dispersion values are favourable for proton acceleration and can lead to maximum energies above 60 MeV at 18 J laser energy for thin plastic foils, effectively doubling the maximum energy compared to ideally compressed FTL pulses. This performance optimization was the key to perform worlds first dose-controlled in-vivo studies with laser accelerated protons.

The talk will further report on experiments we have carried out in the relativistically induced transparancy regime where the target turns transparent during the laser pulse interaction. We show recent data how the experimental signatures of the accelerated protons in this regime change compared to standard TNSA conditions and how we could reproduce those results at another similar laser laser system.