The simulations of charged particle acceleration from gas target at 20 TW SOKOL-P laser with intensity of 5⋅10¹⁹ W/cm²

Russian Federal Nuclear Center – VNIITF, Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk Reg. 456770, Russia

^a e-mail: v.a.lykov@vniitf.ru

Published online: 15 November 2013

Abstract

2D PIC code simulations have been performed for the optimization of gas jet target parameters to achieve a maximal energy and efficiency of charged particle acceleration in planned experiments at the 20 TW picosecond SOKOL-P laser. These calculations specify an opportunity to obtain energy up to E_e ∼ 200 MeV and efficiency η_e ∼ 10% for accelerated electrons and E_p ∼ 30 − 50 MeV and η_p ∼ 5% for accelerated protons in these experiments at laser intensity I ∼ 5 ⋅ 10¹⁹ W/cm². They show the necessity of providing a formation of hydrogen jets with diameter ∼ 1mm, a gas molecule concentration ∼ 2 ⋅ 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ and steep density gradients ∼ 200 μm at the edge of the gas jet target for achieving these parameters of laser accelerated particle beams.