Laser-acceleration of high-energy protons in small-scale gradients

High-energy Laser Ponderomotive Acceleration

A new concept of TeV-range laser ponderomotive acceleration in a plasma is proposed. Particles are accelerated in the point-like scattering by the leading front of the laser pulse, propagating at the group velocity less than the vacuum speed of light. In this scheme, the gain in particle energy is determined by the group velocity and does not depend on laser intensity, which determines the quan...

Intense Laser Acceleration of Quasi - Monoenergetic Protons

Title of Document: INTENSE LASER ACCELERATION OF QUASI-MONOENERGETIC PROTONS Tung-Chang Liu, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Directed By: Professor Chuan S Liu, Physics By irradiating an ultra-thin overdense foil with an intense circularly polarized laser beam, the laser radiation pressure can push the foil forward. This scheme, laser radiation pressure acceleration, is one of the most actively stud...

Laser Acceleration of Protons from Thin Film Targets

A collimated beam of fast protons, with energies as high as 10 MeV and total number of 10, confined in a cone angle of 40°±10° has been observed when a 10 TW laser with frequencies either co0 (corresponding to 1 Jim) or 2o)0 was focused to an intensity of a few times 10 W/cm on the surface of a thin film target. The protons, which originate from impurities on the front side of the target, are a...

High-acceleration Micro-scale Laser Sails for Interstellar Propulsion

Ultra High-Energy Interaction of CR protons

The recent Auger results suggest that although coincidences of arrival directions with ’nearby’ AGN and HiRes discovery of the GZK cut-off indicate protons, the measured longitudinal propagation characteristics indicate heavy nuclei, if the conventional interaction model is correct. Something has to change! Our own view is that it is possible that the AGN -implied proton identification is not c...