Ultraintense laser interaction with nanoscale target: a simple model for layer expansion and ion acceleration

A simple model has been derived for the expansion of a thin (up to 100s of nm thickness), solid-density target driven by an u.ltraintense laser. In this regime, new ion acceleration mechanisms, such as the Break-Out Afterburner (BOA) [1], emerge with the potential to dramatically improve energy, efficiency, and energy spread of laser-driven ion beams. Such beams have been proposed [2] as drivers for fast ignition inertial confinement fusion [3]. Analysis of kinetic simulations of the BOA shows two dislinct times that bound the period of enhanced acceleration: t{sub 1}, when the target becomes relativistically transparent to the laser, and t{sub 2}, when the target becomes classically underdense and the enhanced acceleration terminates. A silllple dynamical model for target expansion has been derived that contains both the early, one-dimensional (lD) expansion of the target as well as three-dimensional (3D) expansion of the plasma at late times, The model assumes that expansion is slab-like at the instantaneous ion sound speed and requires as input target composition, laser intensity, laser spot area, and the efficiency of laser absorption into electron thermal energy.