Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Laser-plasma acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic protons from microstructured targets

Nature volume 439, pages 445–448 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Particle acceleration based on high intensity laser systems (a process known as laser–plasma acceleration) has achieved high quality particle beams that compare favourably with conventional acceleration techniques in terms of emittance, brightness and pulse duration1,2,3,4. A long-term difficulty associated with laser–plasma acceleration—the very broad, exponential energy spectrum of the emitted particles—has been overcome recently for electron beams5,6,7. Here we report analogous results for ions, specifically the production of quasi-monoenergetic proton beams using laser–plasma accelerators. Reliable and reproducible laser-accelerated ion beams were achieved by intense laser irradiation of solid microstructured targets. This proof-of-principle experiment serves to illuminate the role of laser-generated plasmas as feasible particle sources. Scalability studies show that, owing to their compact size and reasonable cost, such table-top laser systems with high repetition rates could contribute to the development of new generations of particle injectors that may be suitable for medical proton therapy8,9,10.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Laser acceleration of protons from the back side of a microstructured target.
Figure 2: Experimental and target arrangement for laser proton acceleration from microstructured targets.
Figure 3: Proton spectra from the Thomson spectrometer.
Figure 4: Results from simulations and scalability of the technique.

References

  1. Maksimchuk, A., Gu, S., Flippo, K., Umstadter, D. & Bychenkov, V. Forward ion acceleration in thin films driven by a high-intensity laser. Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4108–4111 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Clark, E. et al. Measurement of energetic proton transport through magnetized plasma from intense laser interactions with solids. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1654–1657 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Snavely, R. A. et al. Intense high-energy proton beams from petawatt-laser irradiation of solids. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2945–2948 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Cowan, T. E. et al. Ultralow emittance, multi-MeV proton beams from a laser virtual-cathode plasma accelerator. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 204801 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Mangles, S. et al. Monoenergetic beams of relativistic electrons from intense laser-plasma interactions. Nature 431, 535–538 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Geddes, C. et al. High-quality electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator using plasma-channel guiding. Nature 431, 538–541 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Faure, J. et al. A laser-plasma accelerator producing monoenergetic electron beams. Nature 431, 541–544 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Tajima, T. & Mourou, G. Zetawatt-exawatt lasers and their applications in ultrastrong-field physics. Phys. Rev. Spec. Topics Accelerators Beams 5, 031301 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Ledingham, K. W. D., McKenna, P. & Singhal, R. P. Applications for nuclear phenomena generated by ultra-intense lasers. Science 300, 1107–1111 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Bulanov, S. & Khoroshkov, V. Feasibility of using laser ion accelerators in proton therapy. Plasma Phys. Rep. 28, 453–456 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Modena, A. et al. Electron acceleration from the breaking of relativistic plasma waves. Nature 377, 606–608 (1995)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Malka, V. et al. Electron acceleration by a wake field forced by an intense ultrashort laser pulse. Science 298, 1596–1600 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Wilks, S. et al. Energetic proton generation in ultra-intense laser-solid interactions. Phys. Plasmas 8, 542–549 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Gitomer, S. J. et al. Fast ions and hot-electrons in the laser-plasma interaction. Phys. Fluids 29, 2679–2688 (1986)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Hegelich, M. et al. MeV ion jets from short-pulse-laser interaction with thin foils. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 085002 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Schreiber, J. et al. Source-size measurements and charge distributions of ions accelerated from thin foils irradiated by high-intensity laser pulses. Appl. Phys. B 79, 1041–1045 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Esirkepov, T. et al. Proposed double-layer target for the generation of high quality laser accelerated ion beams. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 175003 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Kaluza, M. et al. Influence of the laser prepulse on proton acceleration in thin-foil experiments. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 045003 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Spencer, I. et al. Experimental study of proton emission from 60-fs, 200-mJ high-repetition-rate tabletop-laser pulses interacting with solid targets. Phys. Rev. E 67, 046402 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Matsukado, K. et al. Energetic protons from a few-micron metallic foil evaporated by an intense laser pulse. Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 215001 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Bulanov, S. V. et al. Feasibility of using laser acceleration in proton therapy. AIP Conf. Proc. 740, 414–429 (2004)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Esirkepov, T. et al. Laser ion acceleration scaling laws seen in multi-parametric PIC simulations. Phys. Rev. Lett. (submitted); preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0510189 (2005)

  23. Hein, J. et al. Diode pumped chirped pulse amplification to the joule level. Appl. Phys. B 79, 419–422 (2004)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Damato, B., Kacperek, A., Chopra, M., Campbell, I. R. & Errington, R. D. Proton beam radiotherapy of choroidal melanoma: The Liverpool-Clatterbridge experience. Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 62, 1405–1411 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Allen, M. et al. Direct experimental evidence of back-surface ion acceleration from laser-irradiated gold foils. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 265004 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. T.E. thanks S. V. Bulanov for discussions. K.W.D.L. takes pleasure in the receipt of a Carl-Zeiss visiting professorship. We thank F. Ronneberger and B. Beleites for their technical support. We thank H.-J. Fuchs and W. Gräf for their help in producing the targets.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Optik und Quantenelektronik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, 07743, Jena, Germany

    H. Schwoerer, S. Pfotenhauer, O. Jäckel, K.-U. Amthor, B. Liesfeld, W. Ziegler, R. Sauerbrey & K. W. D. Ledingham

  2. Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, G4 0NG, Glasgow, UK

    K. W. D. Ledingham

  3. AWE plc, Reading, RG7 4PR, Aldermaston, UK

    K. W. D. Ledingham

  4. Kansai Research Establishment, JAERI, 619-0215, Kizu, Kyoto, Japan

    T. Esirkepov

  5. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudnyi, 141700, Russia

    T. Esirkepov

Authors
  1. H. Schwoerer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. Pfotenhauer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. O. Jäckel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. K.-U. Amthor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. B. Liesfeld
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. W. Ziegler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. R. Sauerbrey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. K. W. D. Ledingham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. T. Esirkepov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to H. Schwoerer.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Schwoerer, H., Pfotenhauer, S., Jäckel, O. et al. Laser-plasma acceleration of quasi-monoenergetic protons from microstructured targets. Nature 439, 445–448 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04492

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04492

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing