S. M. Pfotenhauer,
O. Jäckel,
J. Polz,
S. Steinke,
H. Schlenvoigt,
J. Heymann,
A. P. L. Robinson,
and M.C. Kaluza
A cascaded laser acceleration scheme for the generation of spectrally controlled proton beams
New J. Phys., 12 :103009 (October 2010)
A cascaded laser acceleration scheme for the generation of spectrally controlled proton beams
New J. Phys., 12 :103009 (October 2010)
Abstract:
We present a novel, cascaded acceleration scheme for the generation of spectrally controlled ion beams using a laser-based accelerator in a 'double-stage' setup. An MeV proton beam produced during a relativistic laser-plasma interaction on a thin foil target is spectrally shaped by a secondary laser-plasma interaction on a separate foil, reliably creating well-separated quasi-monoenergetic features in the energy spectrum. The observed modulations are fully explained by a one-dimensional (1D) model supported by numerical simulations. These findings demonstrate that laser acceleration can, in principle, be applied in an additive manner.