Improved generation of ion fluxes by a long laser pulse using laser-induced cavity pressure acceleration

Generation of ion fluxes in the laser-induced cavity pressure acceleration (LICPA) scheme is investigated by the time-of-flight method and compared with the one in the conventional laser-planar target interaction scheme. It is shown that the ion current density and intensity of the ion flux produced in the LICPA scheme from CD2 foil target irradiated by a 0.3-ns laser pulse of intensity similar to 10(14)-10(15) W/cm(2) are by an order of magnitude higher and the mean and maximum ion energies by a factor 4-5 higher than those for the conventional scheme.