Laser irradiations of advanced targets promoting absorption resonance for ion acceleration in TNSA regime

Advanced targets based on Au nanoparticles embedded in polymers films show high absorption coefficient in the UV-visible and infrared region. They can be employed to enhance the proton and ion acceleration from the laser-generated plasma in TNSA regime. In conditions of “p” polarized laser irradiations at 1015 W/cm2 intensity, in these films can be induced resonant absorption due to plasma wave excitation. Plasma on-line diagnostics is based on SiC detectors, Thomson spectrometry and X-ray streak camera imaging. Measurements of kinetic energy of accelerated ions indicate a significant increment using polymer targets containing gold nanoparticles and “p” polarized laser light with respect to pure polymers and unpolarized light irradiation.