Acceleration of heavy Ions to MeV/nucleon Energies by Ultrahigh-Intensity Lasers

In this thesis the acceleration of heavy ions to multi-MeV energies by means of a laser is demonstrated for the first time. Using an ultrahigh-intensity laser, with focal intensities exceeding 5 x 10^19 W/cm^2, the laser-plasma interaction becomes relativistic and a strong electron current is driven in laser direction. These relativistic electrons penetrate the target foil and set up a quasistatic electric field at the target rear surface. This field is of the order of TV/m and accelerated Fluorine ions to energies of 100 MeV, i.e. about 10 % light speed, within 300 fs. While a normal accelerator needs a distance of roughly 100 m to reach these energies, the laser-driven acceleration achieves this in about 10 microns. Within the scope of this work, a technique was developed to select a specific ion species. The energy spectra and charge state distributions of several different species were measured and used to analyze the acceleration mechanism. The measured results were than compared to computer simulations to gain detailed information on the strength and timescale of the accelerating fields.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

Year

2002

Author dc:creator

• Hegelich, Björn Manuel

Repository record source_url

https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/660/

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de:660