ICMRE2025 In the near future intensities of 10²³ W/cm² will be achieved with the 10 PW laser at ELI-NP [1]. We study the interaction of  such a laser pulse with a plastic micro-cone by performing three-dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations using the SMILEI code. We consider also the case of a laser pulse with the intensity of 5x10²³ W/cm² interacting with the same micro-cone. For comparison, we simulated also the interaction of the same laser pulses with a plastic foil with a thickness of 1 µm, same as the thickness of the micro-cone tip and walls.  We can see from the Figure 1 that in the case of a micro-cone target carbon ions with energies higher than 2 GeV can be produced in a greater number than in the case of a foil target. The carbon ions are accelerated at the energies of 3.2 GeV at the highest angle of 20 degrees in the case of the foil. Also, we show that more energetic γ photons are generated in the case of the micro-cone target than in the case of a foil.

In conclusion, the plastic micro-cone can be used to generate very energetic  collimated carbon ions and gamma photons at the interaction with a 10 PW laser.  
[1] K. A. Tanaka et al., Current status and highlights of the ELI-NP research program. Matter Radiat. Extremes 5, (2020), 024402.

laser ion acceleration, gamma photon creation, multi-petawatt laser, micro-cone, secondary sources, plasma