Energy enhancement of the target surface electron by using a 200 TW sub-picosecond laser.

One order of magnitude energy enhancement of the target surface electron beams with central energy at 11.5 MeV is achieved by using a 200 TW, 500 fs laser at an incident angle of 72 degrees with a prepulse intensity ratio of 5 x 10(-6). The experimental results demonstrate the scalability of the acceleration process to high electron energy with a longer (sub-picosecond) laser pulse duration and a higher laser energy (120 J). The total charge of the beam is 400 +/- 20 pC(E > 2.7 MeV). Such a high orientation and mono-energetic electron jet would be a good method to solve the problem of the large beam divergence in fast ignition schemes and to increase the laser energy deposition on the target core. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America