Proton acceleration by a relativistic laser frequency-chirp driven plasma snowplow · arXivDesk
1405.4309May 16, 2014Proceedings of IPAC2012, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, pp.2654-2656, 07 Accelerator Technology and Main Systems, T25 Lasers, ISBN 978-3-95450-115-1. http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/ipac2012/papers/weppd059.pdf
Proton acceleration by a relativistic laser frequency-chirp driven plasma snowplow
Aakash A. Sahai, T. C. Katsouleas, R. A. Bingham, F. S. Tsung, A. R. Tableman, M. Tzoufras, W. B. Mori
We analyze the use of a relativistic laser pulse with a controlled frequency chirp incident on a rising plasma density gradient to drive an acceleration structure for proton and light-ion acceleration. The Chirp Induced Transparency Acceleration (ChITA) scheme is described with an analytical model of the velocity of the snowplow at critical density on a pre-formed rising plasma density gradient that is driven by a positive-chirp in the frequency of a relativistic laser pulse. The velocity of the ChITA-snowplow is shown to depend upon rate of rise of the frequency of the relativistic laser pulse represented by θε0 where, ε0=ω0Δω0
Nearby in the stack
and chirping spatial scale-length,
θ
, the normalized magnetic vector potential of the laser pulse
a0
and the plasma density gradient scale-length,
α
. We observe using 1-D OSIRIS simulations the formation and forward propagation of ChITA-snowplow, being continuously pushed by the chirping laser at a velocity in accordance with the analytical results. The trace protons reflect off of this propagating snowplow structure and accelerate mono-energetically. The control over ChITA-snowplow velocity allows the tuning of accelerated proton energies.