As a new laser-driven ion acceleration technique, we proposed a way to produce impurity-free, highly reproducible, and robust proton beams exceeding 100 MeV using a Coulomb explosion of micron-size hydrogen clusters. In this study, micron-size hydrogen clusters were generated by expanding the cooled high-pressure hydrogen gas into a vacuum via a conical nozzle connected to a solenoid valve cooled by a mechanical cryostat. The size distributions of the hydrogen clusters were evaluated by measuring the angular distribution of laser light scattered from the clusters. The data were analyzed mathematically based on the Mie scattering theory combined with the Tikhonov regularization method. The maximum size of the hydrogen cluster at 25 K and 6 MPa in the stagnation state was recognized to be 2.15 ± 0.10 μ m. The mean cluster size decreased with increasing temperature, and was found to be much larger than that given by Hagena’s formula. This discrepancy suggests that the micron-size hydrogen clusters were formed by the atomization (spallation) of the liquid or supercritical fluid phase of hydrogen. In addition, the density profiles of the gas phase were evaluated for 25 to 80 K at 6 MPa using a Nomarski interferometer. Based on the measurement results and the equation of state for hydrogen, the cluster mass fraction was obtained. 3D particles-in-cell (PIC) simulations concerning the interaction processes of micron-size hydrogen clusters with high power laser pulses predicted the generation of protons exceeding 100 MeV and accelerating in a laser propagation direction via an anisotropic Coulomb explosion mechanism, thus demonstrating a future candidate in laser-driven proton sources for upcoming multi-petawatt lasers.

The diagnosis method, using a combination of a permanent magnet and CR-39 track detectors, has been developed to separately measure the energy spectrum of the laser-accelerated MeV/n-class high-Z ions and that of MeV protons. The main role of magnet is separating between high-Z ions and protons, not for the usual energy spectrometer, while ion energy was precisely determined from careful analysis of the etch pit shapes and the etch pit growth behaviors in the CR-39. The method was applied to laser-driven ion acceleration experiments using CO ₂ clusters embedded in a background H ₂ gas. Ion energy spectra with uncertainty Δ E = 0.1 MeV n ⁻¹ for protons and carbon/oxygen ions were simultaneously obtained separately. The maximum energies of carbon/oxygen ions and protons were determined as 1.1 ± 0.1 MeV and 1.6 ± 0.1 MeV n ⁻¹ , respectively. The sharp decrease around 1 MeV n ⁻¹ observed in the energy spectrum of carbon/oxygen ions could be due to a trace of the ambipolar hydrodynamic expansion of CO ₂ clusters. Thanks to the combination of the magnet and the CR-39, the method is robust against electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

The size of CO₂ clusters, produced in a supersonic expansion of a mixed-gas of CO₂/He or CO₂/H₂ through a three-staged conical nozzle designed based on the Boldarev's model, has been evaluated by measuring the angular distribution of light scattered from the clusters. The data are analyzed utilizing the Mie scattering theory, and the sizes of CO₂ clusters are estimated as 0.22 μm and 0.25 μm for the cases of CO₂/He and CO₂/H₂ gas mixtures, respectively. The results confirm that the Boldarev's model is reliable enough for the production of micron-sized clusters.

A detailed mathematical model is presented for a submicron-sized cluster formation in a binary gas mixture flowing through a three-staged conical nozzle. By measuring the angular distribution of light scattered from the clusters, the size of CO₂ clusters, produced in a supersonic expansion of the mixture gas of CO₂(30%)/H₂(70%) or CO₂(10%)/He(90%), has been evaluated using the Mie scattering method. The mean sizes of CO₂ clusters are estimated to be 0.28 ± 0.03 μm for CO₂/H₂ and 0.26 ± 0.04 μm for CO₂/He, respectively. In addition, total gas density profiles in radial direction of the gas jet, measuring the phase shift of the light passing through the target by utilizing an interferometer, are found to be agreed with the numerical modeling within a factor of two. The dryness (= monomer/(monomer + cluster) ratio) in the targets is found to support the numerical modeling. The apparatus developed to evaluate the cluster-gas targets proved that our mathematical model of cluster formation is reliable enough for the binary gas mixture.

A new diagnosis method for the discriminative detection of laser-accelerated multi-MeV carbon ions from background oxygen ions utilizing solid-state nuclear track detectors (SSNTDs) is proposed. The idea is to combine two kinds of SSNTDs having different track registration sensitivities: Bisphenol A polycarbonate detects carbon and the heavier ions, and polyethylene terephthalate detects oxygen and the heavier ions. The method is calibrated with mono-energetic carbon and oxygen ion beams from the heavy ion accelerator. Based on the calibration data, the method is applied to identify carbon ions accelerated from multilayered graphene targets irradiated by a high-power laser, where the generation of high-energy high-purity carbon ions is expected. It is found that 93 ± 1% of the accelerated heavy ions with energies larger than 14 MeV are carbons. The results thus obtained support that carbon-rich heavy ion acceleration is achieved.