DOE OSTI · 3014821
Demonstration of improvement of energy conversion rate from kJ PW laser to protons with electron confinement
Abstract
Kilojoule-class relativistic intensity lasers can produce energetic protons with high energy conversion efficiencies in the interaction with a thin foil target. Using the national ignition facility advanced radiographic capability (NIF-ARC) laser, we demonstrated an enhancement of energy conversion from laser to protons by the effective confinement of fast electrons in the laser spot by random kicks from the self-excited field. The number of fast electrons was increased by 4.6 times by increasing the ratio of the laser spot size to the foil thickness to strengthen the confinement effect. The energy conversion efficiency from laser to protons increases approximately linearly with the enhancement of the number of fast electrons. The conversion rate for protons with energies above 8 MeV was 1.8 %. The result leads to high efficiency proton acceleration which is beneficial in applications, such as proton radiography and plasma heating in laser fusion.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Explore connections, maps & timelines
Iwata, Natsumi [Univ. of Osaka (Japan)] (ORCID:0000000228231842), Mariscal, Derek A. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000195024205), Rusby, Dean [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000173886226), Simpson, Raspberry [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000200971136), Cochran, G. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000189598341), Kemp, Andreas J. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000345186382), Wilks, S. C. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000272682683), Morace, A. [Univ. of Osaka (Japan)] (ORCID:000000018795834X), Alessi, D. A. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000260455838), Kalantar, D. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000277712546), Mackinnon, A. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000243802906), Martinez, D. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000186802503), Patankar, S. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000279595646), Di Nicola, J. -M. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)], Lanier, T. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000096444965), Ma, T. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000266579604), Fujioka, S. [Univ. of Osaka (Japan)] (ORCID:0000000184061772), Sentoku, Y. [Univ. of Osaka (Japan)]. 2025-12-17. Demonstration of improvement of energy conversion rate from kJ PW laser to protons with electron confinement. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0292357
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.