@article{oai:repo.qst.go.jp:00080275, author = {Hadjisolomou, Prokopis and Bulanov and Korn, G. and Bulanov, Sergey}, issue = {3}, journal = {Journal of Plasma Physics}, month = {May}, note = {Although the interaction of a flat foil with currently available laser intensities is now considered a routine process, during the last decade, emphasis has been given to targets with complex geometries aiming at increasing the ion energy. This work presents a target geometry where two symmetric side holes and a central hole are drilled into the foil. A study of the various side-hole and central-hole length combinations is performed with two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations for polyethylene targets and a laser intensity of . The holed targets show a remarkable increase of the conversion efficiency, which corresponds to a different target configuration for electrons, protons and carbon ions. Furthermore, diffraction of the laser pulse leads to a directional high energy electron beam, with a temperature of , or seven times higher than in the case of a flat foil. The higher conversion efficiency consequently leads to a significant enhancement of the maximum proton energy from holed targets.}, title = {Towards laser ion acceleration with holed targets}, volume = {86}, year = {2020} }