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    Stable laser-ion acceleration in the light sail regime
    (College Park : American Institute of Physics Inc., 2013) Steinke, S.; Hilz, P.; Schnürer, M.; Priebe, G.; Bränzel, J.; Abicht, F.; Kiefer, D.; Kreuzer, C.; Ostermayr, T.; Schreiber, J.; Andreev, A.A.; Yu, T.P.; Pukhov, A.; Sandner, W.
    We present experimental results on ion acceleration with circularly polarized, ultrahigh contrast laser pulses focused to peak intensities of 5×1019 W cm-2 onto polymer targets of a few 10 nanometer thickness. We observed spatially and energetically separated protons and carbon ions that accumulate to pronounced peaks around 2 MeV containing as much as 6.5% of the laser energy. Based on particle-in-cell simulation, we illustrate that an early separation of heavier carbon ions and lighter protons creates a stable interface that is maintained beyond the end of the radiation pressure dominated acceleration process.
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    Kinematics of femtosecond laser-generated plasma expansion: Determination of sub-micron density gradient and collisionality evolution of over-critical laser plasmas
    ([S.l.] : American Institute of Physics, 2021) Scott, G.G.; Indorf, G.F.H.; Ennen, M.A.; Forestier-Colleoni, P.; Hawkes, S.J.; Scaife, L.; Sedov, M.; Symes, D.R.; Thornton, C.; Beg, F.; Ma, T.; McKenna, P.; Andreev, A.A.; Teubner, U.; Neely, D.
    An optical diagnostic based on resonant absorption of laser light in a plasma is introduced and is used for the determination of density scale lengths in the range of 10 nm to >1 μm at the critical surface of an overdense plasma. This diagnostic is also used to extract the plasma collisional frequency, allowing inference of the temporally evolving plasma composition on the tens of femtosecond timescale. This is found to be characterized by two eras: the early time and short scale length expansion (L < 0.1λ), where the interaction is highly collisional and target material dependent, followed by a period of material independent plasma expansion for longer scale lengths (L > 0.1λ); this is consistent with a hydrogen plasma decoupling from the bulk target material. Density gradients and plasma parameters on this scale are of importance to plasma mirror optical performance and comment is made on this theme.
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    Parametric study of cycle modulation in laser driven ion beams and acceleration field retrieval at femtosecond timescale
    (College Park, MD : American Physical Society, 2019) Schnürer, M.; Braenzel, J.; Lübcke, A.; Andreev, A.A.
    High-frequency modulations appearing in the kinetic energy distribution of laser-accelerated ions are proposed for retrieving the acceleration field dynamics at the femtosecond timescale. Such an approach becomes possible if the laser-cycling field modulates the particle density in the ion spectra and produces quasitime stamps for analysis. We investigate target and laser parameters determining this effect and discuss the dependencies of the observed modulation. Our findings refine a basic mechanism, the target normal sheath acceleration, where an intense and ultrafast laser pulse produces a very strong electrical field at a plasma-vacuum interface. The field decays rapidly due to energy dissipation and forms a characteristic spectrum of fast ions streaming away from the interface. We show that the derived decay function of the field is in accordance with model predictions of the accelerating field structure. Our findings are supported by two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. The knowledge of the femtosecond field dynamics helps to rerate optimization strategies for laser ion acceleration.