Plasma shutter for heavy ion acceleration enhancement

3D particle-in-cell simulation of the interaction of high-intensity PW-class laser pulse with a plasma shutter and a main foil. The laser pulse firstly burns through the plasma shutter (a thin silicon nitride membrane) changes its intensity profile and subsequently interacts with the silver foil. The modified pulse shape improves the ion acceleration with a substantial increase in maximal energy of silver ions accelerated from the main foil and reduce of the beam divergence.

Simulation by M. Matys using the PIC code EPOCH. References: Visualization by ELI Beamlines