Production of energetic proton beams with lasers

Abstract : A new method for accelerating proton beams, based on the use of intense and short laser pulses, is presented. It is shown that by focusing an ultrashort laser pulse onto a thin foil target, a proton beam with energy up to tens of MeV is produced. Due to the original properties of these beams unexplored fields in science will be discovered. In addition, this compact and low cost approach would probably be of great interest for medical applications.