Proton Acceleration with Nano-Scale Micro-Structured Target by Circularly Polarized Laser Pulse

Two dimensional particle-in-cell simulations are taken to study the interaction of a circularly polarized laser pulse with a nano-scale micro-structured target. The protons which are doped in the rear side of the target experience the electrostatic fields caused by both the radiation pressure driven shock and the target normal sheath at the rear side of the target. A quasimonoenergetic proton bunch with central energy of about 11MeV and energy spread of ∆ ε/ε about 0.18 is achieved by using a 3.45×10¹⁹ W/cm², 66fs laser pulse. A comparison with the case of linearly polarized laser pulse and the same target condition is considered.