High-contrast laser-proton acceleration from condensed hydrogen jet and ultra-thin foils

Demanding applications like radiation therapy of cancer have pushed the development of laser plasma proton accelerators and defined levels of control and necessary proton beam stability in laser plasma experiments. The presentation will give an overview of the recent experiments for laser driven proton acceleration with high contrast at the high power laser Draco at HZDR, delivering pulses of 30fs and 5J. We present results of an experimental campaign employing a pure condensed hydrogen jet as a renewable target. The jet's nominal electron density is approximately 30 times the critical density and its diameter can be varied to be 2µm, 5µm or 10µm and thus allowing to study the regime of relativistic transparency. Different ion diagnostics reveal mono-species proton acceleration in the laser incidence plane around the wire-like target. Radiochromic film stacks in forward direction display signatures of filament-like structures, stemming from a Weibel-like instability generated at the rear side of the target in the underdense plasma region. A comparison of the data with results obtained using ultra-thin foils at high-contrast provided by a single plasma-mirror will be given.
Additionally, the expanding jet could be monitored on-shot with a temporally synchronized probe beam perpendicular to the pump laser axis. Recorded probe images resemble those of z-pinch experiments with metal wires and indicate sausage-like instability along the jet axis.