第四讲 超强激光脉冲与等离子体相互作用中高能离子的产生

近几年来，由于高功率激光技术的不断发展，利用超强激光脉冲与等离子体相互作用产生高能离子束的研究得到了极大推动．实验和理论模拟均发现，在超强激光脉冲与等离子体相互作用过程中，可以产生高亮度、小尺寸、方向性好的高能质子束和高能重离子束．这种基于超强激光的高能离子源在先进离子束成像技术、惯性约束聚变混合“快点火”、新型台面离子加速器以及医疗等方面都有很诱人的应用前景．文章主要介绍了超强激光与固体靶相互作用中高能离子束（尤其是质子束）的加速机制、高能离子束特性、常用测量方法及其潜在应用，并对最新的研究进展进行了简单介绍．     

超强激光与固体气体复合靶作用产生高能氦离子

激光氦离子源产生的MeV能量的氦离子因有望用于聚变反应堆材料辐照损伤的模拟研究而得到关注.目前激光驱动氦离子源的主要方案是采用相对论激光与氦气射流作用加速高能氦离子,但这种方案在实验上难以产生具有前向性和准单能性、数MeV能量、高产额的氦离子束,而这些氦离子束特性是材料辐照损伤研究中十分关注的.不同于上述激光氦离子产生方法,我们提出了一种利用超强激光与固体-气体复合靶作用产生氦离子的新方法.利用这种方法,在实验上,采用功率密度5×10~(18)W/cm~2的皮秒脉宽的激光脉冲与铜-氦气复合靶作用,产生了前向发射的2.7 MeV的准单能氦离子束,能量超过0.5 MeV的氦离子产额约为10~(13)/sr.二维粒子模拟显示,氦离子在靶背鞘场加速和类无碰撞冲击波加速两种加速机理共同作用下得到加速.同时粒子模拟还显示氦离子截止能量与超热电子温度成正比.     

实时离子探测器——塑料闪烁体性能的实验研究

利用静电离子加速器对实时离子探测器——塑料闪烁体的特性 (包括灵敏度、动态范围、能量响应, 及空间分辨等)进行了实验研究,并对闪烁体探测器与其他传统的离子探测器的特性进行了比较. 对闪烁体在激光等离子体实验的离子束诊断中的可能应用进行了探讨.塑料闪烁体的应用可满足高重复频率激光等离子体离子加速实验高效率运行的要求,为实验研究提供强有力的支持.     

激光加速高能质子实验研究进展及新加速方案

利用超强激光与等离子体相互作用来加速高能离子是激光等离子体物理及加速器物理领域的研究热点.经过了近20年的发展,激光离子加速已取得丰硕成果,催生了一批新的应用.本文概述了国内外激光离子加速所取得的标志性实验研究进展,围绕高能质子的产生这一关键问题进行了深入的探讨,介绍了近几年来发展的有潜力的新加速方案.     

液体薄膜靶在激光驱动辐射源和激光离子加速中的应用

流动的无支撑液体薄膜在各个领域有着广泛应用。超强激光作用在这样的薄膜上，可产生涵盖太赫兹到伽马射线的高亮度次级辐射及高能的离子，并具有高重频、低成本、可连续工作等显著优势。概述了液体薄膜靶的制备和表征方法，阐明了液体薄膜靶相对于传统靶材的特性和优势，并对其在激光驱动辐射源和激光离子加速中的应用做出了总结和展望。     

激光等离子体稳相加速机制研究

现有激光等离子体加速机制中纵向电场对离子的有效加速长度很短(微米量级),且束流能散大,得到的离子能量较低.当采用圆偏振激光和固体靶相互作用时,如果激光的归一化光强矢量α与靶的电子面密度no/nC D/kL相当时,则存在一种稳相加速机制.此时激光和等离子相瓦作用产生的静电场不仅可以用于加速离子,而且还可以在纵向对离子进行聚束,从而可以有效地降低束流能散.数值模拟结果表明,利用激光加速可以得到能散小于5%的单能离子束,这对激光加速器走向实际应用有着重要意义.     

快离子束光谱学介绍

一引言 传统的光谱学,由于光源技术的局限,半个世纪以来受到了很大的限制.自从可调频激光技术引人光谱学,以及快离子束光源用作研究高离化态和多重激发态的新型光源之后,古老的光谱学又获得了新生. 快离子束光源包括束箔、束-气体和束-激光光源三种形式.它们是让由加速器加速的离子束分别穿过一个固体薄箔、气体池或激光束来使离子束中的离子激发,从而在以后的飞行路程中退激发光的.用它们作为光源来研究原子和分子结构的光谱学方法称为快离子束光谱学.由于光源的激发机制不同,与传统的光谱学相比,快离子束光谱学具有以下几个突出的特点: (1…     

高密度平面靶等离子体中激光驱动冲击波加速离子的能谱展宽

本文对超短超强激光脉冲辐照高密度等离子体产生的静电冲击波加速离子的能谱展宽机理进行了数值研究.着重讨论了三种冲击波加速离子的能谱展宽机理:能量沉积到离子中使得冲击波前沿不断减速,被加速离子与背景粒子的碰撞,以及高能离子到达靶背面时受到鞘层场进一步加速.还研究了驱动激光脉冲宽度对冲击波加速离子能谱宽度的影响. 关键词： 激光等离子体 冲击波加速 能谱展宽     

从激光加速到激光离子加速器

高能离子束在基础研究、材料学、生物学及医学等诸多领域有着重要价值和广泛应用,其产生方法也受到了越来越多的关注。激光等离子体相互作用能够产生比常规射频加速器高三个量级的加速电场,由此可以建造占地小、成本低、峰值流强高的新型加速器。文章介绍了激光离子加速的基本物理概念及实验进展,并对激光离子加速器的工程设计及应用前景进行了简介。     

142—146,148,150Nd+同位素位移的共线快离子束激光光谱学实验研究

原子光谱中,同位素位移是少数几个能够将原子物理学和原子核物理学这两个不同的物理学分支联系起来的课题之一.本文利用共线快离子束激光光谱学方法,测量了正一价钕离子所有7个稳定同位素(A=142—146,148,150)之间的能量位移.与已有的结果比较,测量精度提高了一个数量级 关键词： 同位素位移 快离子束激光光谱学     

实时单发测量的汤姆逊离子谱仪

介绍一种使用闪烁体耦合电子倍增电荷耦合器件(EMCCD)的方式对离子进行记录的汤姆逊能谱仪,可实现对离子能谱的实时单发测量。同时,该谱仪利用倾斜电极板对离子进行偏转,可减少由于离子打在电极板上产生的电磁噪声,能够提高实验结果的信噪比。该谱仪在北京大学4.5 MV静电加速器和2×6MV串列加速器上进行了标定实验,测量了闪烁体将离子转化成光子后的探测效率,实验结果也验证了该谱仪的可行性和稳定性。该汤姆逊谱仪将用于北京大学激光加速器CLAPA对离子束流的测量研究。     

激光驱动飞片加速特征分析

在激光驱动飞片研究中,飞片的加速特征是需要认识的关键问题之一。设计了强激光作用金属膜驱动飞片实验,采用聚偏氟乙烯（PVDF）压电薄膜测量了飞片到达不同距离的时间,计算得到飞片速度和加速度,分析激光能量对飞片加速性能的影响。基于Gurney能理论,建立了激光驱动飞片速度的计算模型,根据实验结果获得了激光能量损失系数和有效吸收系数,分析了激光能量和膜体厚度对飞片速度的影响。实验结果表明:不同激光能量下飞片的加速特征基本相似,激光能量变化对飞片的加速时间影响较小; 激光能量较大的情况下,膜体厚度对飞片最大速度、能量耦合系数的影响更显著; 当膜体超过一定厚度时,能量耦合系数不再增加。     

Laser-driven generation of fast particles

The great progress in high-peak-power laser technology has resulted recently in the production of ps and subps laser pulses of PW powers and relativistic intensities (up to 10²¹ W/cm²) and has laid the basis for the construction of multi-PW lasers generating ultrarelativistic laser intensities (above 10²³ W/cm²). The laser pulses of such extreme parameters make it possible to produce highly collimated beams of electrons or ions of MeV to GeV energies, of short time durations (down to subps) and of enormous currents and current densities, unattainable with conventional accelerators. Such particle beams have a potential to be applied in numerous fields of scientific research as well as in medicine and technology development. This paper is focused on laser-driven generation of fast ion beams and reviews recent progress in this field. The basic concepts and achievements in the generation of intense beams of protons, light ions, and multiply charged heavy ions are presented. Prospects for applications of laser-driven ion beams are briefly discussed.     

Steady state ion acceleration by a circularly polarized laser pulse

The steady state ion acceleration at the front of a cold solid target by a circularly polarized flat-top laser pulse is studied with one-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. A model that ions are reflected by a steady laser-driven piston is used by comparing with the electrostatic shock acceleration. A stable profile with a double-flat-top structure in phase space forms after ions enter the undisturbed region of the target with a constant velocity.     

Electron temperature scaling in laser interaction with solids

A precise knowledge of the temperature and number of hot electrons generated in the interaction of short-pulse high-intensity lasers with solids is crucial for harnessing the energy of a laser pulse in applications such as laser-driven ion acceleration or fast ignition. Nevertheless, present scaling laws tend to overestimate the hot electron temperature when compared to experiment and simulations. We present a novel approach that is based on a weighted average of the kinetic energy of an ensemble of electrons. We find that the scaling of electron energy with laser intensity can be derived from a general Lorentz invariant electron distribution ansatz that does not rely on a specific model of energy absorption. The scaling derived is in perfect agreement with simulation results and clearly follows the trend seen in recent experiments, especially at high laser intensities where other scalings fail to describe the simulations accurately.     

Laser electron acceleration beyond 100 GeV

Nowadays there is great progress on laser-driven plasma-based accelerators by exploiting petawatt-class lasers, where for one aspect electron beams can be accelerated to multi-GeV energy in a centimeter-scale plasma due to laser wakefield acceleration mechanism. While to date, worldwide researches on laser-plasma accelerators are focused to create compact particle and radiation sources for applications in a wide range of sciences, including basic, medical and industrial sciences, there are great interests in applications for high energy physics and astrophysics that explore unprecedented high-energy frontier phenomena, for which laser plasma accelerator concepts provide us with promising tools. Here, our endeavors toward “extreme light” in the IZEST are envisaged for the next 30 years perspective and issues on laser plasma electron acceleration beyond 100 GeV and furthermore toward the TeV regime, aiming at high energy physics applications.     

Nuclear Physics with 10 PW laser beams at Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP)

The field of the uncharted territory of high-intensity laser interaction with matter is confronted with new exotic phenomena and, consequently, opens new research perspectives. The intense laser beams interacting with a gas or solid target generate beams of electrons, protons and ions. These beams can induce nuclear reactions. Electrons also generate ions high-energy photons via bremsstrahlung processes which can also induce nuclear reactions. In this context a new research domain began to form in the last decade or so, namely nuclear physics with high power lasers. The observation of high brilliance proton beams of tens of MeV energy from solid targets has stimulated an intense research activity. The laser-driven particle beams have to compete with conventional nuclear accelerator-generated beams. The ultimate goal is aiming at applications of the laser produced beams in research, technology and medicine. The mechanism responsible for ion acceleration are currently subject of intensive research in many laboratories in the world. The existing results, experimental and theoretical, and their perspectives are reviewed in this article in the context of IZEST and the scientific program of ELI-NP.