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arXiv · 1810.02247

Polarized Proton Beams from Laser-induced Plasmas

Anna Hützen·Johannes Thomas·Jürgen Böker·Ralf Engels·Ralf Gebel·Andreas Lehrach·Alexander Pukhov·T. Peter Rakitzis·Dimitris Sofikitis·Markus Büscher
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Abstract

We report on the concept of an innovative source to produce polarized proton/deuteron beams of a kinetic energy up to several GeV from a laser-driven plasma accelerator. Spin effects have been implemented into the PIC simulation code VLPL to make theoretical predictions about the behavior of proton spins in laser-induced plasmas. Simulations of spin-polarized targets show that the polarization is conserved during the acceleration process. For the experimental realization, a polarized HCl gas-jet target is under construction using the fundamental wavelength of a Nd:YAG laser system to align the HCl bonds and simultaneously circular polarized light of the fifth harmonic to photo-dissociate, yielding nuclear polarized H atoms. Subsequently, their degree of polarization is measured with a Lamb-shift polarimeter. The final experiments, aiming at the first observation of a polarized particle beam from laser-generated plasmas, will be carried out at the 10 PW laser system SULF at SIOM/Shanghai.

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Anna Hützen, Johannes Thomas, Jürgen Böker, Ralf Engels, Ralf Gebel, Andreas Lehrach, Alexander Pukhov, T. Peter Rakitzis, Dimitris Sofikitis, Markus Büscher. 2018-10-04. Polarized Proton Beams from Laser-induced Plasmas. https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2018.73

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