Thin tape target driver for laser ion accelerator

Abstract

A thin tape target driver for laser ion acceleration was developed. The driver can move a copper tape of 5 μm thickness with a positioning reproducibility of less than 30 μm (peak to valley), which is sufficient for a laser irradiation target. Using this tape target and laser pulses of energy 350 mJ and duration 60 fs, protons of energies of over 1 MeV were accelerated in the forward direction.