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Prospects for laser-driven ion acceleration through controlled displacement of electrons by standing waves
MPIPKS:
Light-matter interaction
Abstract:
During the interaction of intense femtosecond laser pulses with various targets, the natural
mechanisms of laser energy transformation inherently lack temporal control and thus commonly
do not provide opportunities for a controlled generation of a well-collimated, high-charge beam
of ions with a given energy of particular interest. In an effort to alleviate this problem, it was
recently proposed that the ions can be dragged by an electron bunch trapped in a controllably
moving potential well formed by laser radiation. Such standing-wave acceleration (SWA) can be
achieved through reflection of a chirped laser pulse from a mirror, which has been formulated as
the concept of chirped-standing-wave acceleration (CSWA). Here, we analyse general feasibility
aspects of the SWA approach and demonstrate its reasonable robustness against field structure
imperfections, such as those caused by misalignment, ellipticity, and limited contrast. Using this,
we also identify prospects and limitations of the CSWA concept.
