Chirped standing wave acceleration of ions with intense lasers

Abstract

We propose a novel mechanism for ion acceleration based on the guided motion of electrons from a thin target. The electron motion is locked to the moving nodes of a standing wave formed by a chirped laser pulse reflected from a mirror behind the target. This provides a stable longitudinal field of charge separation, thus giving rise to chirped standing wave acceleration (CSWA) of the residual ions of the layer. We demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that quasi-monoenergetic ion beams with energies of the order 100 MeV are feasible for realistic pulse energies of 10 J. Moreover, a scaling law for higher laser intensities and layer densities is presented, indicating stable GeV-level energy gains of dense ion bunches, for soon-to-be available laser intensities.