Enhancement of collisionless shock ion acceleration by electrostatic ion two-stream instability in the upstream plasma

Ion acceleration in electrostatic collisionless shocks is driven by the interaction of the high-power laser with specially tailored near-relativistic critical density plasma. 2D EPOCH particle-in-cell simulations show that the ion acceleration is dependent on the target material used. In materials w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. Accelerators and beams 2019-04, Vol.22 (4), Article 043401
Main Authors: Kumar, Rajesh, Sakawa, Youichi, Döhl, Leonard N. K., Woolsey, Nigel, Morace, Alessio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acceleration
Charge materials
Electric fields
High power lasers
Particle in cell technique
Plasmas (physics)
Proton beams
Stability
Upstream
Velocity distribution
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Summary:Ion acceleration in electrostatic collisionless shocks is driven by the interaction of the high-power laser with specially tailored near-relativistic critical density plasma. 2D EPOCH particle-in-cell simulations show that the ion acceleration is dependent on the target material used. In materials with low charge-to-mass ratio⟨Z/A⟩, proton beams with high flux and low energy spread are generated. In multi-ion plasmas the ions with different⟨Z/A⟩acquire different velocities under a non-oscillating component of electrostatic field in the upstream region. This relative drift between the protons (⟨Z/A⟩=1) and the lower⟨Z/A⟩ions leads to the excitation of electrostatic ion two-stream instability. This in turn generates a low-velocity component in the upstream expanding protons. The velocity distribution of the upstream expanding protons is further broadened toward the higher velocity by the electrostatic ion two-stream instability between reflected protons, which results in large number of protons being accelerated by the shock.
ISSN:2469-9888
2469-9888
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.22.043401