Laser-plasma acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic protons from microstructured targets
Laser-plasma acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic protons from microstructured targets
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/nature04492
复制
发表时间：
2006-01-26
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Esirkepov, T
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Schwoerer, H;Pfotenhauer, S;Esirkepov, T
基于高强度激光系统的粒子加速（一种被称为激光等离子体加速的过程）已经实现了高质量的粒子束，在发射度、亮度和脉冲持续时间方面与传统的加速技术相比是有利的（1-4）。一个与激光等离子体加速有关的长期难题——发射粒子的非常宽的指数能谱——最近已经被电子束克服了（5-7）。在这里，我们报告了离子的类似结果，特别是使用激光等离子体加速器产生准单能量质子束。通过强激光照射固体微结构靶，实现了可靠、可重复的激光加速离子束。这个原理验证实验有助于阐明激光产生的等离子体作为可行的粒子源的作用。可扩展性研究表明，由于其紧凑的尺寸和合理的成本，这种高重复率的桌面激光系统可以促进新一代粒子注入器的发展，可能适用于医学质子治疗（8-10）。
Particle acceleration based on high intensity laser systems ( a process known as laser - plasma acceleration) has achieved high quality particle beams that compare favourably with conventional acceleration techniques in terms of emittance, brightness and pulse duration(1-4). A long-term difficulty associated with laser - plasma acceleration - the very broad, exponential energy spectrum of the emitted particles - has been overcome recently for electron beams(5-7). Here we report analogous results for ions, specifically the production of quasi-monoenergetic proton beams using laser - plasma accelerators. Reliable and reproducible laser-accelerated ion beams were achieved by intense laser irradiation of solid microstructured targets. This proof-of-principle experiment serves to illuminate the role of laser-generated plasmas as feasible particle sources. Scalability studies show that, owing to their compact size and reasonable cost, such table-top laser systems with high repetition rates could contribute to the development of new generations of particle injectors that may be suitable for medical proton therapy(8-10).