Improved Energy Scaling and Coupling in High-Repetition Laser-Driven Proton Acceleration
ORAL
Abstract
Laser-driven ion sources have attracted significant interest due to their potential for compact, high-gradient acceleration and their suitability for a range of applications. Many of these—including radioisotope production, inertial confinement fusion, radiation damage studies, and FLASH radiobiology—require a stable, high-flux proton source with energies above 10 MeV. In this work we report proton acceleration up to 25 MeV from liquid water sheet targets irradiated at 3.3 Hz by 3 J, 30 fs laser pulses in a ~19,000-shot campaign conducted with the L3-HAPLS laser at ELI Beamlines. Target thickness and laser pulse shaping scans reveal enhanced coupling and an improved scaling law exceeding classical TNSA predictions. Time-of-flight, Thomson parabola, and scintillator imager diagnostics demonstrate stable operation over thousands of shots, while laser reflection and transmission measurements correlate shot-to-shot coupling with proton energy and flux. These results demonstrate robust, application-relevant proton acceleration and advance understanding of coupling physics in ultrafast laser-plasma interactions.
*This work was funded by the DOE Office of Science, Fusion Energy Science under FWP100182. Portions of this research were carried out at the ELI Beamlines Facility, a European user facility operated by the Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC. The authors would like to thank the ELIMAIA station team, the L3-HAPLS laser team and the support team involved in the experiment. The work was partially supported by the European Union, the Romanian Government and the Health Program, within the project "Medical applications of high-power lasers - Dr. LASER", SMIS Code: 326475. CAJP, JW, PP acknowledge the support of the Vulcan dark period community support programme 24-3.
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Presenters
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Girik Jain
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory