Novel approach to laser-driven multi-stage ion acceleration

Key to the interest in a laser based particle accelerator lies in its cost effective and compactness. However, the ion beams accelerated by the laser-driven mechanisms have shortcomings such as a broad energy spectrum and large beam divergence.

A recently developed concept of a versatile, miniature linear accelerating module harnesses the extremely high electromagnetic pulses produced by the interaction of intense lasers, and achieves simultaneous focusing, energy selection and post-acceleration of the proton beams. The process boosts the energy of the ions accelerated from the foil, through the application of a large amplitude field within a helical coil, which travels synchronously with the ions.