Influence of Reverse Expansion of Laser Plasma on Ions Acceleration

Effect of laser plasma reverse extension is described in this paper. Influence of the effect on ion acceleration in a laser ion source is researched. This effect leads to sedimentation of ions on metal target, which significantly impacts acceleration time of other ions. In this case, the ions also tend to travel major part of their path with constant velocity. This allows one to consider movement of the ions in plasma drift space, when optimizing time focusing ability of the TOF analyzer.