Enhanced laser–plasma interactions using non-imaging optical concentrator targets

Abstract

Picosecond-scale laser–matter interactions using compound parabolic concentrators have demonstrated strongly relativistic ponderomotive effects with <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mo>∼</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> </mml:math> increase in x-ray source brightness, positron production and multi-MeV proton acceleration versus flat targets, using a marginally relativistic intensity laser.