Effects of pulse chirp on laser-driven proton acceleration.

Optimisation and reproducibility of beams of protons accelerated from laser-solid interactions require accurate control of a wide set of variables, concerning both the laser pulse and the target. Among the former ones, the chirp and temporal shape of the pulse reaching the experimental area may vary because of spectral phase modulations acquired along the laser system and beam transport. Here, we present an experimental study where we investigate the influence of the laser pulse chirp on proton acceleration from ultrathin flat foils (10 and 100 nm thickness), while minimising any asymmetry in the pulse temporal shape.

Laser-driven proton acceleration from ultrathin foils with nanoholes.

Structured solid targets are widely investigated to increase the energy absorption of high-power laser pulses so as to achieve efficient ion acceleration. Here we report the first experimental study of the maximum energy of proton beams accelerated from sub-micrometric foils perforated with holes of nanometric size. By showing the lack of energy enhancement in comparison to standard flat foils, our results suggest that the high contrast routinely achieved with a double plasma mirror does not prevent damaging of the nanostructures prior to the main interaction.

Enhanced laser-driven proton acceleration using nanowire targets.

Laser-driven proton acceleration is a growing field of interest in the high-power laser community. One of the big challenges related to the most routinely used laser-driven ion acceleration mechanism, Target-Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA), is to enhance the laser-to-proton energy transfer such as to maximize the proton kinetic energy and number. A way to achieve this is using nanostructured target surfaces in the laser-matter interaction.