Ion Acceleration from Near-Critical-Density Plasmas via Magnetic Vortex Acceleration in 3D Particle-in-cell Simulations

ORAL

Abstract

We explored laser-driven ion acceleration via the Magnetic Vortex Acceleration scheme using 3D Warp+PICSAR and WarpX PIC simulation codes. In this scheme a high intensity and short pulse laser pulse propagates in near critical density plasma targets, making a channel in both electron and ion density. When the laser pulse exits the plasma, it establishes strong longitudinal electric fields that can accelerate the ions, which are pinched by the electrons in a thin filament along the laser propagation axis. We found that under the optimum conditions of the target thickness and density [1], the maximum ion energy in 3D is about 50% lower than that in 2D due to the smaller channel size in 3D. Particle tracking method is used to understand the acceleration process in more detail. [1] S. S. Bulanov, et al, Phys. Plasmas 17,043105(2010)

*The work was supported by the LDRD program of LBNL, the U.S. DOE Office of Science Offices of HEP and FES, under Contract DE-AC02-05CH11231, and by the U.S. DOE Exascale Computing Project (17-SC-20-SC). This research used resources (Edison, Cori) of NERSC, and an award of computation time by the INCITE program using resources of ALCF both supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. DOE under Contracts DE-AC02-05CH11231 and AC02-06CH11357, respectively.

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Presenters

  • Jaehong Park

    • Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA, Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Berkeley, CA, USA
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

Authors

  • Jaehong Park

    • Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA, Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Berkeley, CA, USA
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Stepan Bulanov

    • Univ of California - Berkeley
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Jean-Luc Vay

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Sven Steinke

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Sven Steinke

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Qing Ji

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Cameron Guy Robinson Geddes

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab
    • LBNL

  • Carl B Schroeder

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab
    • LBNL

  • Eric Esarey

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab
    • LBNL

  • Thomas Schenkel

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab

  • Wim Pieter Leemans

    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, U.C. Berkeley
    • Lawrence Berkeley Natl Lab, Univ of California - Berkeley
    • LBNL, UC Berkeley