Daniele Palla

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Italian National Research Council

Fast electron generation and transport in high-intensity laser–solid interactions induces X-ray emission and drives ion acceleration. Effective production of these sources hinges on an efficient laser absorption into the fast electron population and control of divergence as the beam propagates through the target. Nanowire targets can be employed to...

Particle-induced x-ray emission (PIXE) is a well-established ion-beam analysis technique, enabling quantitative measurement of the elemental composition of a sample surface under an ambient atmosphere with an external beam, which significantly simplifies the measurements, and is strictly necessary for those samples that cannot sustain a vacuum envi...

A model for the calculation of the pump energy coupling to a disk amplifier is presented. The disk is considered to be pumped on its edge by diode bars. A composite geometry, namely a disk with a doped (pump absorbing) inner region surrounded by an undoped region is considered. The model allows the overall pump energy coupling as well as the absorp...

We report on the conceptual design of a 2 μm, broadband laser multipass amplifier system based on Tm-doped gain medium, including an overview of the model established to optimize the performance of a diode edge-pumped high-power solid-state thin-disk configuration.

In this paper, the laser-accelerated plasma–propulsion system (LAPPS) for a spacecraft is revisited. Starting from the general properties of relativistic propellants, the relations between specific impulse, engine thrust and rocket dynamics have been obtained. The specific impulse is defined in terms of the relativistic velocity of the propellant u...

Proton laser-plasma-based acceleration has nowadays achieved a substantial maturity allowing to seek for possible practical applications, as for example Particle Induced X-ray Emission with few MeV protons. Here we report about the design, implementation, and characterization of a few MeV laser-plasma-accelerated proton beamline in air using a comp...

The interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with solids is largely affected by the plasma gradient at the vacuum–solid interface, which modifies the absorption and ultimately, controls the energy distribution function of heated electrons. A micrometer scale-length plasma has been predicted to yield a significant enhancement of the energy and weigh...

The interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with solids is largely affected by the plasma gradient at the vacuum-solid interface, which modifies the absorption and ultimately, controls the energy distribution function of heated electrons. A micrometer scale-length plasma has been predicted to yield a significant enhancement of the energy and weigh...

The interaction of ultraintense laser pulses with solids is largely affected by the plasma gradient at the vacuum-solid interface, which modifies the absorption and ultimately, controls the energy distribution function of heated electrons. A micrometer scale-length plasma has been predicted to yield a significant enhancement of the energy and weigh...

The design, realization and test of a few-MeV proton-laser–based source to be used for PIXE measurements at atmospheric pressure are reported. The system comprises a 14 TW 30 fs laser system, a motorized laser-plasma target holder and a compact magnetic beam line designed using GEANT4 simulation tools. During the experimental tests the transported...

We present the main features of the ultrashort, high-intensity laser installation at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL) including laser, beam transport and target area specifications. The laboratory was designed to host laser–target interaction experiments of more than 220 TW peak power, in flexible focusing configurations, with ultrar...

Radiotherapy with very high energy electrons has been investigated for a couple of decades as an effective approach to improve dose distribution compared to conventional photon-based radiotherapy, with the recent intriguing potential of high dose-rate irradiation. Its practical application to treatment has been hindered by the lack of hospital-scal...

In this paper we report the measurement of laser-driven proton acceleration obtained by irradiating nanotube array targets with ultrashort laser pulses at an intensity in excess of 10²⁰ W cm⁻². The energetic spectra of forward accelerated protons show a larger flux and a higher proton cutoff energy if compared to flat foils of comparable thickness....

We show that both the flux and the cutoff energy of protons accelerated by ultraintense lasers can besimultaneously increased when using targets consisting of thin layers of bundled nanochannels. Particle-in-cellsimulations suggest that the propagation of an electromagnetic field in the subwavelength channels occurs viaexcitation of surface plasmon...

We report on recent experimental results on proton acceleration from laser interaction with foil targets at ultra-relativistic intensities. We show a three-fold increase in the proton cut-off energy when a micrometer scale-length pre-plasma is introduced by irradiation with a low energy femtosecond pre-pulse. The foil target is sufficiently thick t...

We describe the latest progress towards the development of a laser-produced proton beam line for Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) applications. The specific aim of the project is the design, realization and test of a compact laser-based source of a few MeV protons to be used for PIXE measurements at atmospheric pressure.

High-repetition rate target development for proton acceleration by laser-plasma experiments is of great importance for future multidisciplinary applications, as envisioned at the ELIMAIA user beamline. The use of gas-jet based target, capable of high-repetition rate (10Hz and beyond) and typically used to generate under-critical density plasma, can...

The production of high-quality electron bunches in laser wakefield acceleration relies on the possibility of injecting ultra-low emittance bunches in the plasma wave. A new bunch injection scheme (resonant multi-pulse ionization, ReMPI) has been conceived and studied, in which electrons extracted by ionization are trapped by a large-amplitude plasm...

Accurate dynamic three-dimensional (4D) imaging of the heart of small rodents is required for the preclinical study of cardiac biomechanics and their modification under pathological conditions, but technological challenges are met in laboratory practice due to the very small size and high pulse rate of the heart of mice and rats as compared to huma...

Purpose All-optical, laser-driven X/gamma-ray sources, based on the primary electron acceleration via the Laser WakeField Acceleration (LWFA) process, have now entered a mature phase in terms of beam parameters, shot-to-shot stability, and reliability, so as to be considered as promising tools in medical physics. The high electron acceleration grad...

The construction of a novel Laser driven Light Ions Acceleration Line(L3IA) is progressing rapidly towards the operation, following the recent upgrade of the ILIL-PW laser facility. The Line was designed following the pilot experimental activity carried out earlier at the same facility to define design parameters and to identify main components inc...

The construction of a novel Laser driven Light Ions Acceleration Line(L3IA) is progressing rapidly towards the operation, following the recent upgrade of the ILIL-PW laser facility. The Line was designed following the pilot experimental activity carried out earlier at the same facility to define design parameters and to identify main components inc...

In this paper, we present the status of the line for laser-driven light ions acceleration (L3IA) currently under implementation at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory (ILIL), and we provide an overview of the pilot experimental activity on laser-driven ion acceleration carried out in support of the design of the line. A description of the main...

High-power lasers allow to produce plasmas extremely appealing for the nuclear physics studies. An intense scientific program is under preparation for the experiments that will be conducted at the Extreme Light Infrastructure for Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) in Magurele, Romania. Among the several planned activities, we aim to study low-energy fusion r...

An experimental campaign aiming at investigating the ion acceleration mechanisms through laser-matter interaction in femtosecond domain has been carried out at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory facility with a laser intensity of up to 2 × 1019 W/cm2. A Thomson parabola spectrometer was used to obtain the spectra of the ions of the different...

In this paper we present an experimental investigation of laser driven light-ion acceleration using the ILIL laser at an intensity of 2×1019 W/cm2. In the experiment we focused our attention on the identification of the role of target thickness and resistivity in the fast electron transport and in the acceleration process. Here we describe the expe...

Laser-driven acceleration in mm-sized plasmas using multi-TW laser systems is now established for the generation of high energy electron bunches. Depending on the acceleration regime, electrons can be used directly for radiobiology applications or for secondary radiation sources. Scattering of these electrons with intense laser pulses is also being...