LASER ACCELERATION OF DEUTERONS AND PROTONS FROM THE FRONT AND THE REAR SURFACES OF THIN FOILS

摘要

The MeV deuterons and protons accelerated from the front and the rear surface of a thin foil by ultra-short laser irradiation were measured by a range-energy technique using ~(10)B(d,n)~(11)C and ~(11)B(p,n)~(11)C nuclear activation. The deuteron and proton beams have been characterized, and the conversion efficiencies from the laser pulse to particles accelerated from both the rear and front sides of the target were obtained. The predominance of rear-side proton acceleration is significant in the case of a 20 μm Al foil. The experiments were supported by a two dimensional particle-in-cell simulation coupled to a Monte-Carlo calculation.