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Updated: Mar 16, 2026

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses
Published on: July 2, 2012
Detailed Experimental Study of Ion Acceleration by Interaction of an Ultra-Short Intense Laser with an Underdense
S Kahaly1,2, F Sylla1,3, A Lifschitz1
1Laboratoire d'Optique Appliquée, Ecole Polytechnique, ENSTA, CNRS, UMR 7639, 91761 Palaiseau, France.
Abstract:
Ion acceleration from intense (Iλ(2) > 10(18) Wcm(-2) μm(2)) laser-plasma interaction is experimentally studied within a wide range of He gas densities. Focusing an ultrashort pulse (duration ion plasma period) on a newly designed submillimetric gas jet system, enabled us to inhibit total evacuation of electrons from the central propagation channel reducing the radial ion acceleration associated with ponderomotive Coulomb explosion, a mechanism predominant in the long pulse scenario. New ion acceleration mechanism have been unveiled in this regime leading to non-Maxwellian quasi monoenergetic features in the ion energy spectra. The emitted nonthermal ion bunches show a new scaling of the ion peak energy with plasma density. The scaling identified in this new regime differs from previously reported studies.
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