Acceleration of electrons under the action of petawatt-class laser pulses onto foam targets

Optimization study for future experiments on interaction of petawatt laser pulses with foam targets was done by 3D PIC simulations. Densities in the range 0.5nc–nc and thicknesses in the range 100–500μm of the targets were considered corresponding to those which are currently available. It is shown that heating of electrons mainly occurs under the action of the ponderomotive force of a laser pulse in which amplitude increases up to three times...