Novel Features in Laser Plasma Interaction: Neutral Atom Acceleration and Electron Generation

Intense laser pulse focused on solid substrate are well known to generate high density high temperature plasma. Electron and ion emission to a few MeV with laser intensities close to the relativistic intensities are well studied. The question we ask is about the possibility of tuning the compact charge particle acceleration schemes to generate neutral atoms beam of the energy same as that of ions. As intense laser-produced plasmas have been demonstrated to produce high-brightness-low-emittance beams, it is therefore possible to envisage generation of high-flux, low-emittance, high energy neutral atom beams in length scales of less than a millimeter [1]–[3]. We demonstrate a high energy neutral atom accelerator could significantly impact applications in neutral atom lithography and diagnostics.