Ponderomotive ion acceleration in laser-plasma interactions: physics and applications

Summary form only given. In the regime of ponderomotive ion acceleration (PIA) by super intense, ultra short laser pulses, the accelerating space-charge field is generated by the direct action of the laser ponderomotive pressure, rather than by escaping fast electrons. In this contribution, two prominent examples of PIA are investigated here with analytical modeling and numerical simulations, emphasizing the common aspects in the ion acceleration dynamics. In the first case, we consider longitudinal PIA in the interaction of circularly polarized pulses with a solid target, showing that this leads to ion "bunches" with mode rate energy, high density and ultra short duration, which may find an application as a driver for femtosecond neutron sources, In the second case, we consider the radial ion acceleration following the charge-displacement channeling of a laser pulse propagating through a gas target. A simple PIA model is able to reproduce experimental results obtained with the proton imaging techniques and in lights the similarities with the first case