2011 Particle Accelerator Conference - List of Authors (Tableman, A.)

Paper	Title	Page
MOP081	Proton Acceleration by Trapping in a Relativistic Laser Driven Uphill Plasma Snowplow	247
	A. Sahai, T.C. Katsouleas Duke ECE, Durham, North Carolina, USA W.B. Mori, A. Tableman, J. Tonge, F.S. Tsung UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
	We explore a novel regime of proton and ion acceleration off of overdense Plasma created by a Laser pulse. In Coulomb explosion, Target Normal Sheath, Acoustic shock acceleration regimes the protons are neither high-energy nor monoenergetic enough for applications such as hadron radiation therapy, fast ignition fusion research and particle physics. This calls out for exploration of effective regimes of acceleration. The proposed Snowplow regime of acceleration uses a Snowplow of charge created by a relativistic Laser pulse at the critical density on a uphill Plasma density gradient. The relativistically moving Snowplow's space charge drags the protons and its velocity can be controlled to effectively trap the protons using laser pulse shape and the uphill density profile. We describe the principles behind this mechanism. We derive analytical expressions for the Snowplow velocity and its dependence on the parameter space. We primarily explore the density gradient and laser pulse shape to optimally accelerate protons from rest to the desired velocities. Preliminary, 1-D simulation results are presented and analyzed.

Paper

Title

Page

Proton Acceleration by Trapping in a Relativistic Laser Driven Uphill Plasma Snowplow

247

A. Sahai, T.C. Katsouleas
Duke ECE, Durham, North Carolina, USA
W.B. Mori, A. Tableman, J. Tonge, F.S. Tsung
UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA

We explore a novel regime of proton and ion acceleration off of overdense Plasma created by a Laser pulse. In Coulomb explosion, Target Normal Sheath, Acoustic shock acceleration regimes the protons are neither high-energy nor monoenergetic enough for applications such as hadron radiation therapy, fast ignition fusion research and particle physics. This calls out for exploration of effective regimes of acceleration. The proposed Snowplow regime of acceleration uses a Snowplow of charge created by a relativistic Laser pulse at the critical density on a uphill Plasma density gradient. The relativistically moving Snowplow's space charge drags the protons and its velocity can be controlled to effectively trap the protons using laser pulse shape and the uphill density profile. We describe the principles behind this mechanism. We derive analytical expressions for the Snowplow velocity and its dependence on the parameter space. We primarily explore the density gradient and laser pulse shape to optimally accelerate protons from rest to the desired velocities. Preliminary, 1-D simulation results are presented and analyzed.