Proton acceleration with intense twisted laser light
Camilla Willim, J. Vieira, V. Malka, L. O. Silva
Abstract
An efficient approach that considers a high-intensity twisted laser of moderate energy (few J) is proposed to generate collimated proton bunches with multi-10 MeV energies from a double-layer hydrogen target. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations demonstrate the formation of a highly collimated and energetic ($\ensuremath{\sim}40$ MeV) proton bunch, whose divergence is $\ensuremath{\sim}6.5$ times smaller compared to the proton bunch driven by a Gaussian laser containing the same energy. Supported by theoretical modeling of relativistic self-focusing in near-critical plasma, we establish a regime that allows for consistent acceleration of high-energetic proton bunches with low divergence under experimentally feasible conditions for twisted drivers.