Effect of Foil Target Thickness in Proton Acceleration Driven by an Ultra-Short Laser

Proton acceleration experiments were carried out by a 1.2× 1018 W/cm2 ultra-short laser interaction with solid foil targets. The peak proton energy observed from an optimum target thickness of 7 μm in our experiments was 2.1 MeV. Peak proton energy and proton yield were investigated for different foil target thicknesses. It was shown that proton energy and conversion efficiency increased as the target became thinner, on one condition that the preplasma generated by the laser prepulse did not have enough shock energy and time to influence or destroy the target rear-surface. The existence of optimum foil thickness is due to the effect of the prepulse and hot electron transportation behavior on the foil target.

Improved bias proportional navigation with multiple constraints for guide ammunition

According to the infrared guidance ammunition(GA)attacking non-maneuvering targets on the ground or sea level,an improved bias proportional navigation(IBPN) is put forward,which can meet the constraints of the impact angle and the angle of attack(AOA). The motion equations and the collision triangle for the GA and the target are established in the two-dimensional plane. In accordance with the collision triangle, the integral value of the bias term is solved and BPN is designed on the basis of the relative velocity. To ensure the new method can be solved, closedloop equation of the IBPN is deduced. Considering the limitation of the AOA and the seeker angle, a four-phase IBPN is improved by setting different phases of the bias term. At the same time, the guidance law will make the impact angle achieve the desired angle and the normal acceleration also converges to zero. The simulation results show that the improved guidance law can be applied to various flight tasks and has great potential for engineering applications.

Generation of fast protons in moderate-intensity laser-plasma interaction from rear sheath

Forward fast protons are generated by the moderate-intensity laser-foil interaction. Protons with maximum energy 190 keV are measured by using magnetic spectrometer and CR-39 solid state track detectors along the direction normal to the rear surface. The experimental results are also modeled by the paxticle-in-cell method, investigating the timevarying electron temperature and the rear sheath field. The temporal and spatial structure of the sheath electrical field, revealed in the simulation, suggests that these protons are accelerated by target normal sheath acceleration （TNSA） mechanism.

Mapping non-laminar proton acceleration in laser-driven target normal sheath field

We report on experimental observation of non-laminar proton acceleration modulated by a strong magnetic field in laser irradiating micrometer aluminum targets.The results illustrate the coexistence of ring-like and filamentation structures.We implement the knife edge method into the radiochromic film detector to map the accelerated beams,measuring a source size of 30-110μm for protons of more than 5 MeV.The diagnosis reveals that the ring-like profile originates from low-energy protons far off the axis whereas the filamentation is from the near-axis high-energy protons,exhibiting non-laminar features.Particle-in-cell simulations reproduced the experimental results,showing that the short-term magnetic turbulence via Weibel instability and the long-term quasi-static annular magnetic field by the streaming electric current account for the measured beam profile.Our work provides direct mapping of laser-driven proton sources in the space-energy domain and reveals the non-laminar beam evolution at featured time scales.

Accelerated protons with energies up to 70 MeV based on the optimized SG-Ⅱ Peta-watt laser facility

The target backsheath field acceleration mechanism is one of the main mechanisms of laser-driven proton acceleration(LDPA)and strongly depends on the comprehensive performance of the ultrashort ultra-intense lasers used as the driving sources.The successful use of the SG-II Peta-watt(SG-II PW)laser facility for LDPA and its applications in radiographic diagnoses have been manifested by the good performance of the SG-II PW facility.Recently,the SG-II PW laser facility has undergone extensive maintenance and a comprehensive technical upgrade in terms of the seed source,laser contrast and terminal focus.LDPA experiments were performed using the maintained SG-II PW laser beam,and the highest cutoff energy of the proton beam was obviously increased.Accordingly,a double-film target structure was used,and the maximum cutoff energy of the proton beam was up to 70 MeV.These results demonstrate that the comprehensive performance of the SG-II PW laser facility was improved significantly.

Simultaneous observation of ultrafast electron and proton beams in TNSA

The interaction of ultra-intense high-power lasers with solid-state targets has been largely studied for the past 20 years as a future compact proton and ion source.Indeed,the huge potential established on the target surface by the escaping electrons provides accelerating gradients of TV/m.This process,called target normal sheath acceleration,involves a large number of phenomena and is very difficult to study because of the picosecond scale dynamics.At the SPARC LAB Test Facility,the high-power laser FLAME is employed in experiments with solid targets,aiming to study possible correlations between ballistic fast electrons and accelerated protons.In detail,we have installed in the interaction chamber two different diagnostics,each one devoted to characterizing one beam.The first relies on electro-optic sampling,and it has been adopted to completely characterize the ultrafast electron components.On the other hand,a time-of-flight detector,based on chemical-vapour-deposited diamond,has allowed us to retrieve the proton energy spectrum.In this work,we report preliminary studies about simultaneous temporal resolved measurements of both the first forerunner escaping electrons and the accelerated protons for different laser parameters.

RF-thermal-structural-RF coupled analysis on a travelling wave disk-loaded accelerating structure

The travelling wave （TW） disk-loaded accelerating structure is one of the key components in normal conducting （NC） linear accelerators, and has been studied for many years. In the design process, usually after the dimensions of each cell and the two couplers are finalized, the structure is fabricated and tuned, and then the whole structure RF characteristics are measured by using a vector network analyzer. Before fabrication, the whole structure characteristics （including RF, thermal and structural ones） are less simulated due to the limited capability of currently available computers. In this paper, we described a method for performing RF-thermal-structural-RF coupled analysis on a TW disk-loaded structure using only one PC. In order to validate our method, we first analyzed and compared our RF simulation results on the 3 m long BEPC Ⅱ structure with the corresponding experimental results, which shows very good consistency. Finally, the RF-thermal-structure-RF coupled analysis results on the 1.35 m long NSC KIPT linac accelerating structure are presented.

Propagation properties of the chirped Airy vortex beams through left-handed and right-handed material slabs

We present an investigation on the propagation properties of the chirped Airy vortex（CAi V） beams through slabs of left-handed materials（LHMs） and right-handed materials（RHMs）. We discuss the influence of chirped parameter C on the propagation of the CAi V beams through LHM and RHM slabs. Our simulation results show that a maximum accelerated velocity appears during the propagation process. The intensity concentration of the CAi V beams increases with the absolute value of the chirped parameter. The peak intensity of the CAi V beams changes abruptly, and the chirped parameter plays an active role on the difference of the maximum and the minimum. In the energy flow, we find that the effects of the chirped parameter on the strength of the vortex are different at different propagation distances.

Accelerating ions with high-energy short laser pulses from submicrometer thick targets

Using the example of the PHELIX high-energy short pulse laser we discuss the technical preconditions to investigate ion acceleration with submicrometer thick targets. We show how the temporal contrast of this system was improved to prevent pre-ionization of such targets on the nanosecond timescale. Furthermore the influence of typical fluctuations or uncertainties of the on-target intensity on ion acceleration experiments is discussed. We report how these uncertainties were reduced by improving the assessment and control of the on-shot intensity and by optimizing the positioning of the target into the focal plane. Finally we report on experimental results showing maximum proton energies in excess of 85 MeV for ion acceleration via the target normal sheath acceleration mechanism using target thicknesses on the order of one micrometer.