Highly efficient accelerator of dense matter using laser-induced cavity pressure acceleration

Abstract

Acceleration of dense matter to high velocities is of high importance for high energy density physics, inertial confinement fusion, or space research. The acceleration schemes employed so far are capable of accelerating dense microprojectiles to velocities approaching 1000 km/s; however, the energetic efficiency of acceleration is low. Here, we propose and demonstrate a highly efficient scheme of acceleration of dense matter in which a projectile placed in a cavity is irradiated by a laser beam introduced into the cavity through a hole and then accelerated in a guiding channel by the pressure of a hot plasma produced in the cavity by the laser beam or by the photon pressure of the ultra-intense laser radiation trapped in the cavity. We show that the acceleration efficiency in this scheme can be much higher than that achieved so far and that sub-relativisitic projectile velocities are feasible in the radiation pressure regime.