A Platform for Ultra-fast Proton Probing of Matter in Extreme Conditions

Abstract

Recent development of Ultra short and Intense laser system paved the way for the generation of short and brilliant proton sources that can be used to study plasmas at extreme conditions in the context of High Energy Density physics. Energy selection, focusing and transport of such sources is still a challenge that is not completely solved. here we present a novel and simple design for a isochrone magnetic selector capable of angular and energy selection of proton sources by drastically reducing the temporal spread if compared with the state of the art. The isochrone selector is demanded for studying proton stopping power in Warm Dense Matter close to the Bragg peak (proton energy below 1 MeV) where the reduced investigated masses imply a short plasma stagnation time ($<$ 100 ps). The proposed selector can also be used at higher proton energy by pushing the final time spread at the level of few ps with important implications for the study of coherent energy deposition in biology and medical physics. Analytical estimations and Monte Carlo simulations are presented to validate the proposed configurations.