Suppression of transverse ablative Rayleigh-Taylor-like instability in the hole-boring radiation pressure acceleration by using elliptically polarized laser pulses

Abstract

It is shown that the transverse Rayleigh-Taylor-like (RT) instability in the hole-boring radiation pressure acceleration can be suppressed by using an elliptically polarized (EP) laser. A moderate J×B heating of the EP laser will thermalize the local electrons, which leads to the transverse diffusion of ions, suppressing the short wavelength perturbations of RT instability. A proper condition of polarization ratio is obtained analytically for the given laser intensity and plasma density. The idea is confirmed by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, showing that the ion beam driven by the EP laser is more concentrated and intense compared with that of the circularly polarized laser.