Optimization of the Combined Proton Acceleration Regime with a Target Composition Scheme

A target composition scheme to optimize the combined proton acceleration regime is presented and verified by two-dimensional particle-in-cell (2D PIC) simulations by using an ultra-intense circularly-polarized (CP) laser pulse irradiating an overdense hydrocarbon (CH) target, instead of a pure hydrogen (H) one. The combined acceleration regime is a two-stage proton acceleration scheme combining the radiation pressure dominated acceleration (RPDA) stage and the laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) stage sequentially together. With an ultra-intense CP laser pulse irradiating an overdense CH target, followed by an underdense tritium plasma gas, protons with higher energies (from about $20$ GeV up to about $30$ GeV) and lower energy spreads (from about $18\%$ down to about $5\%$ in full-width at half-maximum, or FWHM) are generated, as compared to the use of a pure H target. It is because protons can be more stably pre-accelerated in the first RPDA stage when using CH targets. With the increase of the carbon-to-hydrogen density ratio, the energy spread is lower and the maximum proton energy is higher. It also shows that for the same laser intensity around $10^{22}$ $Wcm^{-2}$, using the CH target will lead to a higher proton energy, as compared to the use of a pure H target. Additionally, proton energy can be further increased by employing a longitudinally negative gradient of a background plasma density.