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On-Demand Presentations: Available throughout 67th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics

12:01 am – 11:59 pm, Sunday November 16 Session OD01 Virtual-Only, Virtual Platform - On Demand
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Correlating X-ray emissions and Target EM fields in Laser-Driven Ion Acceleration

Poster 1
Presenter: Justin Laberge
Authors: Scott Wilks (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Raspberry Simpson (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Dean Rusby (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

        Laser-driven-ion-acceleration is widely used to generate MeV-energy particle sources. A commonly used mechanism in Proton Fast Ignition, for instance, is Target-Normal-Sheath-Acceleration (TNSA). During this process, X-rays are emitted and strong electric fields responsible for ion acceleration are established. Recent results from TNSA proton acceleration studies have shown that accepted models underestimate the ion energies achieved in experiment. We examine this phenomenon by taking the characteristic X-ray emissions from the hot-electron beam as a signature of the ion-accelerating TNSA fields.  We present a simulation framework capable of reproducing K-alpha signals detected from the foil targets. We consider electron and photon interactions in the foil, as well as the refluxing behavior of electrons. The simulation is used to model and iteratively adjust properties of the ion-accelerating fields to match measured X-ray signatures. We aim to provide new constraints on the strength, structure, and evolution of the TNSA fields surrounding the laser-irradiated target.

Funding acknowledgement

This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.This research was performed under an appointment to the Minority Serving Institutions Internship Program (MSIIP) administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) for the National Security Administration (NNSA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). ORISE is managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). All opinions expressed in this paper are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the policies and views of NNSA, DOE, ORISE or ORAU.

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