Laser driven ion acceleration

The different acceleration mechanisms of ion acceleration from a foil irradiated by a short-pulse laser are briefly discussed, i.e., the backward and forward ion acceleration from the front side, the forward ion acceleration from the rear side, and the shock acceleration inside the target itself. A particular attention is then given to the forward ion acceleration from the rear side, as it appears presently as the most efficient mechanism. Fast electrons are first created at the front side of a thin foil by the laser-plasma interaction, then propagate through the target and build a charge separation field at the rear side. The corresponding electric field ionizes atoms and accelerates ions. The paradigm for the plasma expansion is the self-similar quasi-neutral expansion of an isothermal semi-infinite plasma into a vacuum that is first presented together with the resultant energy spectrum. The analysis of the conditions of validity of the quasi-neutrality assumption enables to determine the structure of the ion front and the maximum ion velocity as a function of time. Various effects are then discussed which may modify the ion spectrum with respect to the simple model : (i) Electron cooling (finite plasma slab case) : the thermal electron energy is progressively converted into the kinetic energy of the ions. The ion spectrum now converges when time goes to infinity in contrast with the isothermal semi-infinite plasma case. (ii) Two-phase model : a refined model is presented, where the electron temperature first rises together with the laser pulse intensity, and then decreases adiabatically while the energy is transferred to the ions. (iii) Two-temperature electron distribution function : as expected the high energy part of the spectrum is governed by the hot electron component (iv) Existence of a finite initial ion density gradient : a wave breaking of the ion flow occurs after a finite time, with the formation of an ion front. When electron cooling is taken into account, and when the initial ion density scale length l(ss) is larger than a few percent of the total plasma slab width, the final maximum ion velocity decreases with l(ss). (v) Multispecies ions: optimisation of the target structure can lead to the acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic light ions (especially protons).