116 / 2025-03-15 10:38:16

Synchronized Laser-Driven Ion Acceleration

laser plasma interaction,laser-driven ion acceleration,hamiltonian

Compact laser-driven accelerators use plasma waves as an accelerating medium and theoretically can achieve acceleration gradients exceeding 100 GeV/m. They have the potential to replace conventional large-scale accelerators and show promising applications in particle and nuclear physics, laboratory astrophysics, high-energy-density science, and medical diagnostics. However, current laser-driven ion acceleration technology has not yet reached the energy levels of conventional accelerators. The primary challenge lies in the fact that ions, due to their larger inertia and slower motion, struggle to keep up with the laser-driven acceleration structures that propagate nearly at the speed of light. To overcome this challenge, we study the ion acceleration mechanism using Hamiltonian analyses and propose several effective cascaded ion acceleration schemes [1-4]. By controlling the laser spatial-temporal profile or plasma density, these schemes enable the propagation speed of the accelerating field to match the ion velocity, thereby achieving synchronized, sustained, and efficient ion acceleration.



[1] Z. Gong et al., Physical Review E 102 (1), 013207 (2020)

[2] Z. Gong et al., Physical Review E 102 (5), 053212 (2020)

[3] Z. Gong et al., Physical Review Research 4 (4), L042031 (2022)

[4] Z. Gong et al., Physical Review Letters 133 (26), 265002 (2024)