Ion acceleration regimes in underdense plasmas

Acceleration of large populations of ions up to high (relativistic) energie s may represent one of the most important and interesting tools that can be provided by the interaction of petawatt laser pulses with matter. In this paper, the basic mechanisms of ion acceleration by short laser pulses are s tudied in underdense plasmas. The ion acceleration does not originate direc tly from the pulse fields, but it is mediated by the electrons in the form of electrostatic fields originating from channeling, double layer formation , and Coulomb explosion.