Towards Spectral Control of Laser-Driven Ion Beams Generated in the Relativistic Transparency Regime

Until recently, experiments on the LANL Trident laser in the relativistic transparency regime have demonstrated efficient, volumetric acceleration of the bulk target ions to high energies by the laser-plasma interaction, but with broad ion-energy distributions. That ion acceleration mechanism (Breakout Afterburner) is intrinsically capable of producing quasi-monoenergetic ion-energy distributions. However, there are processes responsible for energy spread, both during the laser-plasma interaction with present-day experimental conditions, as well as during the subsequent transport of the beam, driven by expansion of the co-moving hot-electron population. Strategies to counter such spread are discussed. Furthermore, our work to understand the recent observation of efficiently-generated, quasi-monoenergetic, $\approx $ 150 MeV Al-ion beams indicates that the dynamics immediately following the laser-plasma interaction can be quite important and beneficial. It has uncovered a new strategy, i.e., using plasma-electron dynamics to increase the ion energy and to decrease its spread. This presentation thus motivates and frames two companion talks on these laser-driven Al-ion beams by Palaniyappan et al. and Huang et al. in this conference.