Laser induced focusing for over-dense plasma beams

,
Peter Schmidt , Oliver Boine-Frankenheim, and Peter Mulser

Citation: Physics of Plasmas 22, 093120 (2015); doi: 10.1063/1.4931739

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4931739
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/php/22/9
Published by the American Institute of Physics
 PHYSICS OF PLASMAS 22, 093120 (2015)

Laser induced focusing for over-dense plasma beams

Peter Schmidt,1,a) Oliver Boine-Frankenheim,1,2 and Peter Mulser3
1
Technische Universit
at Darmstadt, Accelerator Physics Group, Schlossgartenstr. 8, 64289 Darmstadt,
Germany
2
GSI Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Beam Physics Department, Planckstr. 1,
64291 Darmstadt, Germany
3
Technische Universit
at Darmstadt, Institute for Condensed Matter Physics, Schlossgartenstr. 7,
64289 Darmstadt, Germany
(Received 22 June 2015; accepted 9 September 2015; published online 28 September 2015)
The capability of ion acceleration with high power, pulsed lasers has become an active field of
research in the past years. In this context, the radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) mechanism has
been the topic of numerous theoretical and experimental publications. Within that mechanism, a
high power, pulsed laser beam hits a thin film target. In contrast to the target normal sheath
acceleration, the entire film target is accelerated as a bulk by the radiation pressure of the laser.
Simulations predict heavy ion beams with kinetic energy up to GeV, as well as solid body densities.
However, there are several effects which limit the efficiency of the RPA: On the one hand, the
Rayleigh-Taylor-instability limits the predicted density. On the other hand, conventional accelerator
elements, such as magnetic focusing devices are too bulky to be installed right after the target.
Therefore, we present a new beam transport method, suitable for RPA-like/over-dense plasma
beams: laser induced focusing. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4931739]

I. INTRODUCTION II. BASIC MECHANISM FOR LASER INDUCED

18
The radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) mecha-
nism has become a promising method of heavy ion accelera-
tion. In contrast to the Target Normal Sheath Acceleration
(TNSA (Refs. 911)), the entire film target is accelerated up
to GeV energies by the radiation pressure of the laser.
However, a practical experimental12 setup using the RPA
would also need focusing and transport elements. This is
necessary since the plasma will transversely expand due to
opening angle of the laser and the Rayleigh-Taylor-
Instability (RTI) will lead to a perturbation of the density
distribution. Simulations7 show that this perturbation takes
place only a few wavelengths behind the initial target.
Usually, conventional accelerator devices (e.g., magnetic fo-
cusing structures) are very bulky and can thus not be placed
immediately after the target. Therefore, this study presents a
new transportation method for over-dense plasmas: laser
induced focusing. Since this method uses a laser beam rather
than bulky parts, it can be applied in any distance from the
target. The focal length and focusing strength are tunable via
the laser parameters, e.g., intensity and pulse length. For this
reason, the laser focusing could be a promising transport
method for over-dense plasmas. We will first give a brief
overview over the basic mechanism, followed by the results
of two dimensional (2D) Particle in Cell (PIC) simulations.
In Sections II and III, these results are compared with analyt-
ical models. The Appendix contains some extensions and
additional benefits from the theory.
a)
E-mail: schmidt@temf.tu-darmstadt.de. URL: http://www.temf.tu-darm-
stadt.de/. Work supported by HIC for FAIR and HGS HIRe
FOCUSING
Figure 1 shows the basic setup: A RPA-like (compare to
Robinson et al.7) plasma beam distribution propagates from
the left to the right, while a counter propagating, plane laser
wave propagates from right to left. The laser wave is circular
polarized to avoid electron heating and the plasma is
assumed to be quasi-neutral and over-dense with
ne  100  1000nc . Thus, the counter propagating laser
wave cannot enter the plasma and surrounds the plasma dis-
tribution. According to the results in Ref. 8, the laser pulse
length s is assumed to be much longer than its oscillation
time: xs  1, the laser frequency much smaller than the
electron plasma frequency x  xpe , and the plasma thick-
ness much larger than the penetration depth of the laser
d  d, as well as d > x2 x2 pe k. Here, k denotes the laser
wavelength, x the laser frequency, and xpe the plasma fre-
quency. In this limit, the reflective index can be assumed as
one and independent of the frequency: R  1. For simplicity,
we may also assume that the (thermal) energy spread of the
plasma is small compared to the mean kinetic energy, that is,
DEth =Ekin  1. The radiation pressure of the electromag-
netic wave compresses the electrons towards the center axis
and the resulting Coulomb field drags the ions, leading to an
effective focusing of the plasma. Therefore, one might also
call this mechanism radiation pressure induced focusing.
While the laser wave propagates along the plasma distribu-
tion, it excites electron surfaces waves. These fast oscillating
waves cause local charge separation and the resulting
Coulomb explosions then push away part of the ions.
Consequently, a part of the ions is lost during the transport.
In Section III, we will analyze the mechanism in more detail,
with the help of simulations and analytical models.

1070-664X/2015/22(9)/093120/7/$30.00 22, 093120-1 C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC

V
093120-2 Schmidt, Boine-Frankenheim, and Mulser
FIG. 1. Basic mechanism of the laser induced focusing: A counter propagat-
ing, plane laser pulse hits an over-dense plasma and is reflected. The result-
ing radiation pressure compresses the plasma to the center axis.
III. PLANE WAVE SIMULATION AND PLASMA MODEL
In order to confirm our theoretical model, we perform
R tion model. Within that range, the beam diameter is
2D PIC simulations using the code VSimV (Ref. 13) by
Tech-X Corp. An ideal plasma with a given velocity- and
density distribution interacts with a given counter-
propagating laser. The distribution is acting as a representa-
tion for a RPA plasma. This is the most idealized case with
which we can easily compare the analytical results.
We assume a quasi neutral plasma of fully ionized tita-
nium ions (density qTi  4500 kg m3 ) and the corresponding
electrons with density ne  1100nc , where nc ce 0 me x2 =e2
is the critical electron density. The plasma slab has a thickness
of d 25 nm, a longitudinal velocity with a forth order
Gaussian distribution, vx  v0 expy4 =r4y (in accordance
with the results in Robinson et al.7), where v0 0:5c and
ry  2lm and a transverse velocity with vy  0:5v0 y=ry 3
expy4 =r4y . Initially, the plasma is in thermal equilibrium
with DEth  13 keV. A circular polarized laser with a wave-
length of k 1lm and an intensity of I0  1:9  1020 W=cm2
is used for the focusing. For the sake of simplicity, the laser is
modeled as a plane wave of infinite pulse length. Note that the
focusing mechanism will also work for much lower laser
intensities, leading to longer focal lengths, but to save compu-
tational resources, we treat the case of a strong laser and a
short focal length, keeping the simulation domain as small as
possible. Figure 2 shows the electron distribution, as well as
the electrical field for different times: As stated earlier, the
laser compresses the plasma towards the center axis on the
expense of losing some of the ions due to local charge separa-
tion. One may also notice from Fig. 2 the clearly visible elec-
tron surface waves excited by the laser, which cause the local
particle loss.
As described in detail in Section IV, the laser focusing
is only slightly energy selective. In contrast to conventional
focusing devices (e.g., solenoids, thin lenses), it is thus diffi-
cult to define a precise focal length. Therefore, one defines
the focal length as the average flight distance x f , after
which the mean beam radius r reaches its minimum
rmin rf . The mean beam radius as a function of the aver-
age flight distance r r x is shown in Fig. 3: From that,
Phys. Plasmas 22, 093120 (2015)
FIG. 2. Shown are the electrons (black dots) and the electrical field (colored)
from the 2D PIC simulation (VSim (Ref. 13)) for different times
(t 54 fs; t 84 fs; t 155 fs; t 215 fs). After a free drift, the radia-
tion pressure of the counter propagating laser leads to an effective focusing
of the plasma.
we obtain a focal length of f  35  40lm, for our simula-
decreased by more than a factor of 1.5, compared to a free
drift. Figure 4 shows the energy concentration as a function
of the transverse coordinate for the electrons and ions before
and after the focusing process. As obtained from that, the
electrons are heated by the laser plasma interaction, while
the ions kinetic energy slightly decreases due to the stopping
power of the laser. But the decisive perception is that the
laser induced focusing considerably compresses the energy
concentration towards the center axis.
The assumption of a perfectly reflective plasma remains
to be discussed in more detail. As seen from Fig. 4, the elec-
trons are heated by the interaction with the laser. However,
as obtained from Fig. 2, the amount of transmitted laser
energy is negligibly small. This raises the question how
much laser energy is reflected and how much laser energy is
absorbed in the plasma. Therefore, Fig. 5 shows the change
of the electron kinetic energy DWkin;e relative to the emitted
laser energy Wlaser / const:  t. From that one obtains that
the maximum energy transfer is only at about 0.6% of the
emitted energy. Together with the low transmission, this
FIG. 3. Shown is the mean beam radius compared to the initial radius r0 as a
function of the average flight distance x for electrons (blue) and ions (red),
respectively. The dashed line denotes the free drift for comparison. Clearly
visible is the expansion section before the interacting. The beam radius
reaches its minimum value of r  r0 after a flight distance of
f  35  40lm. From 2D PIC simulation (VSim (Ref. 13)).
093120-3 Schmidt, Boine-Frankenheim, and Mulser Phys. Plasmas 22, 093120 (2015)

FIG. 4. Shown is the kinetic energy

concentration as a function of the
transverse coordinate for (a) the elec-
tron before and (b) after the focusing
process, (c) the ions before and (d) af-
ter the focusing. From 2D PIC simula-
tion (VSim Ref. 13).

confirms the assumption of nearly perfect reflectivity. Note d 1R
u dA 
qd0~ I cos2 a^
n dA
that this may only be valid as long as ne  nc and d  d dt @V @V c
hold. As shown in Section IV, an analytical model assuming dt f x; y; t 0; n^ rf =jrf j; (1)
R  1 shows good agreement with the simulation results,
further confirming this assumption. where n^ is the outward pointing normal vector of the surface.
For simplicity, we treat the problem in two dimensions,
IV. CURVED PLASMA SURFACE MODEL unless the same derivation can be done in three dimensions.
Under this condition,
As justified in Section III, the plasma is assumed to be
quasi-neutral with the reflective index R  1. The interaction df x; y; t @f dx @f dy @f
of the external laser wave and the plasma can then be 0 (2)
dt @t dt @x dt @y
described by the radiation pressure prad 1 RI=c cos2 a.
Here, I denotes the laser intensity and c the vacuum speed of holds, in particular. With dt x ux ; dt y uy , we may write
light, and a the angle of incidence. As a first approximation,
we model the plasma as a mutable surface of constant density. @f @f @f
One may further assume that the electrons and ions in the ux uy 0: (3)
@t @x @y
plasma are cold and therefore neglect the hydrodynamic pres-
sure, as well as the thermal radiation pressure. The surface is Furthermore, f x  hy; t 0 is another representa-
described by an analytical function f x; y; t 0. Initially, the tion of the plasma surface function. Then, the normal vector
plasma may have a longitudinal velocity V0x y and a trans- of the surface is given as n^ 1 @y h2 1=2 1; @y hT .
verse velocity V0y y which only depend on the transverse We perform a localization of Eq. (1) and obtain
coordinate, giving the plasma its typical shape (see Fig. 2). For
the initial plasma distribution, we use a simplified model, as a dux 1R 1 2
qd0  q
 2 I cos a
representation for the RPA plasma. The Galilei-invariant equa- dt c 1 @ h y
tions of motion (in integral form), as well as the kinematic
boundary condition for the surface, states duy 1 R @y h 2
qd0 q
 2 I cos a
dt c 1 @ h y

@t h uy @y h ux ; (4)

where dt ui @t ui uj @xj ui is the total time derivative of the

velocity function, with @x ui 0 at x hy; t. For a better
overview, we will re-write these equations in dimensionless
variables: x kn; y kg; t sk=c; Vx0 y ! cbx0 g; Vy0 y
~
! cby0 g; ux cbk ; uy cb? , and hy;t ! hg;sk, where k
is the laser wavelength. If the incident laser wave is plane and
propagates into negative x-direction (that is from right to left),
k^i ~
e x holds and the angle of incidence can be given as
FIG. 5. Shown is the ratio of the electrons kinetic energy change DWkin;e and
the emitted laser energy Wlaser / const:  t as a function of time. The energy 1
transfer is only at about 0.6% of the emitted energy. From 2D PIC simula- cosa ^ e x () cos2 a
n ~ : (5)
~2
1 @g h
tion (VSim Ref. 13).
093120-4 Schmidt, Boine-Frankenheim, and Mulser Phys. Plasmas 22, 093120 (2015)

But for simplicity, we may only treat the case of small

angle of incidence, thus cosa  1, holds. This assumption
is true at least at the front part of the expanding plasma.
With these relations, we can re-write the equation above as

dbk 1 ~ g; s
a20 q gn h;
ds ~2
1 @g h
db? @g h~ ~ g; s (6)
a20 q gn h;
ds ~ 2
1 @g h
@s h~ b? @g h~ bk : FIG. 6. Shown is a comparison of the numerical solution of Eq. (6) (blue
line) with the result of a 2D PIC simulation (VSim Ref. 13, black dots). The
black, dashed line denotes the size of the free drifting plasma for
Here, the dimensionless acceleration parameter a20 comparison.
1 R0 E20 k=2q0 c2 d0 , was introduced. Then g gn; g; s
is a given space- and time dependent function for the shape beam with almost no divergence. Figure 9 shows the mean
of the laser intensity. In particular, g might be given as beam radius as a function of the average flight distance. For
g Hs  s0 , where Hs is the Heaviside theta function x  25lm, the mean beam radius has decreased to r  0:6r0 ,
and s0 is the free drift time, until the laser interacts with the which is more than a factor of two smaller than the free drift.
plasma. From these equations, we obtain a first knowledge: To emphasize the focusing effect, the initial divergence in
The optimum angle of incidence between the surface normal this simulation was doubled compared with the previous
and the wave vector of the laser is aopt p=4. For smaller one. For the analytical modeling, we perform the same deri-
angles, the stopping power dominates over the focusing vation as in Section IV. One arrives at (e.g., for the upper
effect (a ! 0), for higher angles (a ! p=2), the effect of the laser beam)
laser totally vanishes. Note, these equations are not Lorentz
invariant, such that the transverse and longitudinal Doppler- dbk cos# sin#@g h~2
a20 ~ g; s
gn h;
shifting are missing. From Eq. (6), we recognize that the ds ~ 2 3=2
1 @g h
laser focusing is a strongly non-linear feature which severely
db? cos# sin#@g h~ 2 @g h~
depends on the plasma surface shape (especially on the a20 ~ g; s
gn h;
slope). A deeper treatment of the equations is given in ds ~ 2 3=2
1 @g h
the Appendix. @s h~ b? @g h~ bk : (7)
Figure 6 shows a comparison of the analytical model
Eq. (6), with the 2D PIC simulation, performed with VSim.13
At the front section, a good agreement is achieved, even VI. DISCUSSION
though the analytical model over-estimates the overall focus-
ing strength due to the assumptions made in the derivation. In In this section, we discuss the advantages and disadvan-
contrast to conventional (e.g., magnetic) focusing methods, tages of the laser focusing compared to alternative strategies
the laser focusing only marginally depends on the initial ve- for beam transport and beam quality improvement.
locity b0 g and is therefore only slightly energy selective. A Typically, laser plasma beam lines use conventional focusing
dependence on the velocity would only appear due to the devices, e.g., magnetic focusing to transport the plasma
Doppler shifting in the relativistic limit. Compared to mag-
netic focusing, it is therefore possible to use the whole plasma
distribution instead of a narrow energy interval. But due to
the strong dependence on the plasma shape, this method can
only be applied in certain cases.

V. CURVED PLASMA SURFACE MODEL

WITH OBLIQUE LASER FIELDS
To optimize the effect of the laser focusing, one may con-
sider the setup shown in Fig. 7: The focusing structure gets
closer to its optimum working angle of aopt p=4, if the laser
is emitted under an angle #. With the setup suggested in Fig. 7,
one could use part of the driving laser pulse for focusing.
Under that condition, k^u cos#; sin#T ; k^l FIG. 7. Possible setup for a skewed laser focusing: The outer part of the
cos#; sin#T hold for the upper and lower wave vectors. driving laser is guided to a concave mirror with a pinhole. The concave mir-
ror focuses the laser onto the plasma beam for focusing, while the center
Figure 8 shows the plasma (electron) distribution and
part of the laser is focused onto the target to drive the RPA process. The cur-
the laser wave for several times. After the focusing process, vature of the concave mirror and its distance from the target determine the
the plasma has transformed into a (nearly) perfectly directed angle of incidence as well as the free drift time.
093120-5 Schmidt, Boine-Frankenheim, and Mulser
FIG. 8. Electron plasma distribution (black dots) and electromagnetic field
(color) for different times (40 fs, 65 fs, 115 fs, 160 fs). The oblique laser
setup leads to a continuous kick of the plasma towards the center axis,
resulting in a quasi straight beam. From VSim Ref. 13 2D PIC simulation.
beam.14 Generally, the capture efficiency of a magnetic de-
vice, such as a pulsed solenoid, is higher than in the case of
the laser focusing. This might be compensated by the fact
that the laser focusing gets by without bulky parts and can
thus be applied in any distance from the target but on the
price of a much more challenging setup. Since the laser fo-
cusing is only slightly energy selective, a larger amount of
the energy spectrum might be transported, while most of the
particles are lost by conventional focusing strategies. As
shown, the laser focusing only works for thin, over-dense
(RPA like) plasma distributions, which is the most important
drawback of this mechanism compared to conventional strat-
egies, which might be applied in a wide range of applica-
tions. There are also other strategies for stabilizing RPA
beams, e.g., by manipulating the target structure (compound
targets), the focus of the driving laser, or by multistage
acceleration. As shown in Korzhimanov et al.,5 compound
targets can be used to drastically decrease the energy spread
of a RPA beam. It is therefore conceivable to use a com-
pound target to generate a plasma distribution which matches
the requirements for laser focusing. Concerning the diver-
gence, the opening angle of the beam severely relies on the
shape of the laser focus rather than on the composition of the
target, such that a suitable transport method may be essential.
FIG. 9. Shown is the mean beam radius compared to the initial radius r0 as a
function of the average flight distance x for ions (red) and electrons (blue).
The dashed line denotes the free drift for comparison. After a free drift sec-
tion of x  5lm, the laser starts compressing the beam. From 2D PIC simu-
lation (VSim Ref. 13).
Phys. Plasmas 22, 093120 (2015)
Similar statements hold true for a mixed acceleration mecha-
nism, as shown in Zhuo et al.15 In Wang et al.,16 another
three-stage acceleration mechanism is proposed. This gener-
ates quasi mono-energetic plasma sheath distribution with
relatively large divergence, close to those parameters applied
in this work. Thus, the laser focusing might be a supplement
for an additional improvement of the plasma distribution.
Furthermore, Wang et al.16 propose a second laser beam
which hits the rear side of the target to generate the exponen-
tial plasma distribution, necessary for the three-stage acceler-
ation. This beam could be provided by the pre-pulse of the
focusing laser in a combined setup. In Zhang et al.,17 another
stabilization method is proposed, using a background
plasma. The background plasma drastically decreases elec-
tron heating and divergence angle and thus improves the
beam quality, on the price of a slightly smaller peak energy.
Compared to laser focusing, this method does not have the
drawback of strong heating, while both methods end up with
a slightly lower peak energy.
VII. DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE ELECTRON
SURFACE WAVES
In this section, we will analyze the excitation of electron
surface waves by the laser focusing in more detail.
Therefore, one may consider a moving reference frame,
which is propagating with the electrons longitudinal velocity
(see Fig. 10). Since the longitudinal electron velocity is a
function of the transverse coordinate, that is, u1e u1e x2 ,
the underlying system is rotational: r  ~ u 6 0. A rotational
reference frame is accelerated, thus image forces and image
currents will arise. The dependence of the longitudinal ve-
locity on the transverse space coordinate also leads to a
stronger Doppler-shifting of the laser wave in the plasma
center compared with the outer wings. If the counter propa-
gating laser wave is plane in the laboratory frame S, it is thus
warped in S0 . To describe these physics, we perform a gen-
eral coordinate transformation into a local inertial system. If
xa ct;~x are the coordinates in the laboratory frame and
x0a the Lorentz coordinates in the local rest frame S0 , then the
transformation between both systems is given by
@x0a b @x0a @x0b
x0a x aa b
b x gl gab : (8)
@xb @xl @x
Here, aab aab x0c denotes the transformation tensor
from S to S0 and gl is the metrical tensor with its determi-
nant g. Moreover, gl diag1; 1; 1; 1 is the
Minkowski-tensor. Additional to that, we make use of the
Einstein notation, where each quantity with an equal upper
and lower index is summed up over this index. Instead of
solving a highly coupled system of equations, we will have a
closer look at some special cases. The co-variant, inhomoge-
neous Maxwell equations in four vector notation read
1 p X
p @l jgjFl l0 jk ; (9)
jgj k
where Fal is the Maxwellian field strength tensor (for more
detail, see Appendix) and jbk is the four-current density
093120-6 Schmidt, Boine-Frankenheim, and Mulser
FIG. 10. Sketch of the reference frames: S is the fixed laboratory frame,
0
while S is a frame, co-moving with the plasma. Since the initial plasma has
a velocity distribution u(y), a simple Lorentz transformation cannot be
applied.
vector. In the following, we will label all species dependent
quantities with a k i; e for ions or electrons, respectively.
Equation (9) is valid in every coordinate system, especially
in a rotational system. Furthermore, these equations sim-
plify to the well known Lorentz invariant equation in the
case of irrotational plasmas. All image forces and image
currents which appear due to the accelerated reference
frame are included in glb and g, respectively. Assuming
small deviations from the linear Lorentz-transformation,
that is, gl  gl hl , with jhl j jgl  gl j  1 and
aab  Kab kab , it holds
p 1
jgj  1 trga hab ;
2 allowed to be functions of space and time. A cutting of the
where trgh stands for the trace of a tensor. The system of
equations then simplifies to
X 1
@l Fl  l0 jk  @l trga hab Fl :
k
2
The left hand site of each equation corresponds to the
common Lorentz-invariant description, typically used in
(plasma-) physics. The right hand side of each equation cor-
responds to the image sources, caused by the curved shape
( rotational flow) of the plasma. We will have a closer look
at the 00-component (Gaussian law) of this set of equations
X from which one obtains the basic scaling, e.g., focal length
~ l0 c2 c0 1 ~
rE qk nk  rtrghE;
k
2 rameters. The comparison with 2D PIC simulations shows a
where c0 is the Lorentz-factor of the mean longitudinal
velocity.
Due to the curvature in the plasma reference frame,
there are additional charge sources on the right hand side. If
~ 0,
we assume a source free (solenoidal) field, that is, rE
this equation reads
X be much harder: Since the focusing process only works with
~ 2l0 c2 c0
rtrgh  E qk nk : (13)
k
Equation (13) states that even in the case of purely sole-
noidal fields, there is space charge in a curved plasma. The
space charge wave will strongly depend on the curvature of
the plasma surface, but the phase of the wave will be equal
Phys. Plasmas 22, 093120 (2015)
FIG. 11. Cutting of the electron surface wave. As predicted by Eq. (14), the
surface wave follows the laser phase and results from the image currents
caused by the rotation of the flow.
to the one of the external electromagnetic fields. Note: A
curved plasma interacting with an external electromagnetic
field can never be free of charges! We further assume Ex 0
and @y trgh @z trgh for symmetry reasons and treat the
external field as a monochromatic wave, that is,
E ~x xt~
~ E0? cosk~ e y sin~x xt~
k~ e z . In addition, we
may write Zeni  ene  dne e, with jdne j  ne0 . Then, Eq.
(13) reads
E0? @tr gh  ~   
dne  2
x xt sin ~
cos k~ x xt :
k~
2l0 c c0 e @x?
(14)
Here, E0? E0? ~ x ; t and trgh trgh~ x ; t are
(10)
electron surface wave is shown in Fig. 11: The wave length
is equal to the external field, as predicted by Eq. (14). From
Fig. 2, one obtains the equality of the phases of the laser-
and the surface wave, also validating Eq. (14).
(11)
VIII. CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK
It has been shown that the radiation pressure induced fo-
cusing is a promising method for focusing over-dense plas-
mas. Since the laser focusing method works without any
fixed/solid device, it can be applied to a plasma in an arbi-
trary small geometry/setup on the expense of losing some of
the particles. An analytical surface wave model was derived,
(12) and focusing strength in terms of the laser- and plasma pa-
good agreement, thus allowing predictions for possible ex-
perimental set-ups. Additional details were obtained by a co-
variant model, which is able to reproduce the more complex
processes of the mechanism, such as the charge waves on the
plasma surface. All simulation- and comparison studies were
done in the frame of an idealized plasma distribution. For a
real RPA plasma, the laser triggering and adjustment would
over-dense plasmas, it has to be triggered such that it starts
right after the acceleration process but before the expansion
rarefies the plasma too much. For this reason, the time slot
for the laser induces focusing would be much shorter. As a
next step, we plan an optimization of the laser focusing in
terms of laser- and plasma parameters, including the timing
093120-7 Schmidt, Boine-Frankenheim, and Mulser Phys. Plasmas 22, 093120 (2015)

of the laser pulse, in particular. This will also include a full This represents the well known inhomogeneous
simulation, combining a RPA simulation and the laser Maxwell equations, Amperes law, and the Gauss law,
induced focusing. respectively.

1
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6). But for large divergence of the expanding plasmaand T. Schlegel, N. Naumova, V. T. Tikhonchuk, C. Labaune, I. V. Sokolov,
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