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Abstract:
Results from theoretical investigations are presented which show that protons can be accelerated from rest to a few hundred MeV by a 1-PW chirped radially polarized laser pulse of several hundred femtosecond duration and focused to a waist radius comparable to the radiation wavelength. Single-particle calculations are supported by many-particle and particle-in-cell simulations. Compared with laser acceleration by a similar linearly polarized pulse, the gained energies are less, but have better beam quality. For a suitable initial phase, a particle bunch gets accelerated by the axial component Ez of the laser pulse and, initially focused by the transverse electric field component Er. Beam diffraction finally sets in due to the particle-particle Coulomb repulsion, after interaction with the pulse ceases to exist.
