Collaborative: Student Training through Research on Plasma-Based Research

自2009年9月1日以来，美国国家科学基金会合作资助的“通过等离子体加速器研究培养研究生”项目已经资助了7个不同机构的14名研究生的工作。其中8名学生已经毕业，另外6名预计将在2014年日历年结束时毕业。该项目支持这六名学生中的一名，其科学目标是完成旨在通过使用激光提高粒子加速效率的理论研究。固体靶的质子和离子束的激光加速是一个广泛应用的话题，包括癌症的光束治疗和快速点火。虽然这一概念为紧凑的治疗设施提供了希望，但需要以适度的激光功率控制能量的单能量光束一直是一个挑战。该学生演示了一种利用密度梯度和激光上升时间整形来控制光束能量的方法。该方案可以超越当前方案的光束能量与激光功率的比例关系。这最后的工作将解决势高度与激光强度的比例。

The NSF Collaborative grant "Graduate Student Training through Research on Plasma-Based Accelerators", has supported the work of 14 graduate students since September 1, 2009 at seven different institutions. Eight of these students have already graduated and another six are expected to graduate by the close of calendar year 2014. This project supports one of these six students, whose scientific goal is to complete theoretical studies aimed at improving the efficiency of particle acceleration through the use of lasers. Laser acceleration of proton and ion beams from solid targets is a topic of great interest for a variety of applications, including beam therapy of cancer and fast ignition. While this concept offers the promise of compact treatment facilities, the need for mono-energetic beams at controlled energies with modest laser power has been a challenge. The student has demonstrated an approach to controlling the energy of beams with density gradient and laser rise time shaping. The scheme can surpass the scaling of beam energy with the laser power of current schemes. This final work will address the scaling of the potential height with laser intensity.