In a major interdisciplinary achievement. 💉
Laser plasma acceleration has greatly evolved over the years. However, one challenge has remained with the process and that is that laser plasma accelerators particle are notoriously difficult to stabilize and control.
The new LPA method improves reliability by making use of a high-power laser, tightly focused onto a thin plastic target. “The intensity of the laser is so enormous that, when it impinges on the target, it immediately ionizes the target material, turning it into a plasma,” explains Kroll, first author on the new study.
The method manages to strip electrons from their atomic cores and push them through the plasma by the laser. The ones that can't escape the now positively charged target, form a “sheath” on the back side of the target. This results in the engineering of a quasi-static electric field that “pulls” on the target ions allowing the ions to enter the mega-electronvolt range.