Speaker
Description
The potential of high intensity laser acceleration with petawatt PW-class laser systems such as the BELLA laser at LBNL are reviewed. Several mechanisms will be discussed as well as limits to the maximum ion energies, required targetry and diagnostics in order to utilize the capabilities of PW laser operation (and ion beam generation). Further, transport of such ion beams to an EMP-free environment, application of novel, high-gradient plasma optics [1] is proposed.
Benchmarked by first experimental results, we will present end-to-end simulations at the ion source and transport that lay out the achievable parameters of such a beam line and indicate that these ion beams can isochorically heat a 1 mm$^3$ gold target to the Warm Dense Matter state.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) funding from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, provided by the Director, Office of Science, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.
References
[1] J. van Tilborg et. al., PRL 115, 184802 (2015)
