Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Energetic proton acceleration from interaction of intense short circularly polarized laser pulse with a sandwich target is investigated using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. The sandwich target consists of a hydrogen-plasma layer surrounded by carbon-plasma layers. It is found that the transverse electric fields generated at the plasma layer interfaces efficiently confine the longitudinally accelerated protons to within the hydrogen-plasma layer such that they are collimated and have smaller energy spread compared with a pure proton layer target. The proton energy spectrum can be controlled by adjusting the target parameters, in particular the width of the hydrogen-plasma layer and the density of the carbon-plasma layer.