Evidence of Resonant Surface-Wave Excitation in the Relativistic Regime through Measurements of Proton Acceleration from Grating Targets

Year: 2013

Authors: Ceccotti T., Floquet V., Sgattoni A., Bigongiari A., Klimo O., Raynaud M., Riconda C., Heron A., Baffigi F., Labate L., Gizzi LA., Vassura L., Fuchs J., Passoni M., Kvĕton M., Novotny F., Possolt M., Prokůpek J., Proška J., Pšikal J., Štolcova L., Velyhan A., Bougeard M., D’Oliveira P., Tcherbakoff O., Reau F., Martin P., Macchi A.

Autors Affiliation: CEA/IRAMIS/SPAM, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, research unit “Adriano Gozzini,” 56124 Pisa, Italy Dipartimento di Energia, Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy LULI, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, CEA, 75252 Paris, France FNSPE, Czech Technical University in Prague, CR-11519 Prague, Czech Republic Institute of Physics of the ASCR, ELI-Beamlines project, Na Slovance 2, 18221 Prague, Czech Republic CEA/DSM/LSI, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France CPHT, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France; LULI, UMR7605, CNRS-CEA-Ecole Polytechnique-Paris 6, 91128 Palaiseau, France; Dipartimento SBAI, Universitŕ di Roma “La Sapienza,” Via A. Scarpa 14, 00161 Roma, Italy;
Dipartimento di Fisica “Enrico Fermi,” Universitŕ di Pisa, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy;

Abstract: The interaction of laser pulses with thin grating targets, having a periodic groove at the irradiated surface, is experimentally investigated. Ultrahigh contrast (similar to 10(12)) pulses allow us to demonstrate an enhanced laser-target coupling for the first time in the relativistic regime of ultrahigh intensity >10(19) W/cm(2). A maximum increase by a factor of 2.5 of the cutoff energy of protons produced by target normal sheath acceleration is observed with respect to plane targets, around the incidence angle expected for the resonant excitation of surface waves. A significant enhancement is also observed for small angles of incidence, out of resonance.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

Volume: 111 (18)      Pages from: 185001  to: 185001

More Information: The authors acknowledge fruitful discussions with Dr. P. Audebert (LULI, France). The research leading to these results has received funding from LASERLAB-EUROPE (Grant No. 284464, EC´s 7th Framework Programme), proposal n. SLIC001693. This work was also supported by the Conseil General de l´Essonne (ASTRE program) by Region Ile de France (SESAME Project), by Saphir Consortium (OSEO), the RTRA Triangle de la Physique, the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) under Ref. BLAN08-1_380251, by the Czech Science Foundation (Project No. P205/11/1165), by ECOP project No. CZ.1.07/ 2.3.00/20.0087, by ELI-Italy funded by CNR, and by MIUR (Italy) via the FIR project SULDIS. EMI2D simulations were performed using HPC resources from GENCI-CCRT (Grant No. 2012-t2012056851). For ALADYN simulations, we acknowledge PRACE for access to resource FERMI based in Italy at CINECA, via the project LSAIL.
KeyWords: surface waves; laser-plasma interaction; laser ion acceleration; laser irradiation; plasma mirror
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.185001

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Citations: 99
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