Optimization of laser-target interaction for proton acceleration

Abstract

The aim of this study is to optimize the characteristics, in particular, the maximum energy and the number of high energy protons accelerated by a high intensity laser from different targets by using two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. Two principal ways are considered to increase the maximum proton energy: (1) the use of an optimized target design (by choosing its atomic composition, density, structure, thickness, and transverse size); (2) variation of the laser pulse parameters (duration, power, intensity, focal spot size, polarization, pulse shape, etc.). Our analysis demonstrates a possibility to accelerate protons to the energies exceeding 200 MeV with 20 J laser pulses with appropriately chosen focusing and duration.