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A Novel Approach to Space Radiation Tests by Using High Power Laser Plasma Interactions

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Abstract

The potential for protons and ions accelerated by ultra-intense high power laser systems was investigated to perform space radiation tests for electronic components and materials which will be used in space. Currently, conventional accelerator systems, which produce monoenergetic particle beams, are employed for space radiation testing. All components must be tested with several different monoenergetic proton and ion beams selected from their continuous energy spectra in space because their broad energy range is a difficult to mimic with discrete energy beams coming from conventional accelerators. Therefore, each component is subjected to at least five different energy proton tests as well as a selection of beams of different ions, which increases the cost of determining the radiation hardness of these components and makes it unpractical. However, laser driven accelerators (LDAs) are capable of producing a mixed environment of particles such as electrons, protons, neutrons, and ions, as well as photons in a wide energy range. The parameters of the laser-plasma interaction can be selected so that the energy spectra and particle fluences of the space radiation environment can be recreated in the laboratory. By using LDA systems, the impact of space radiation on space electronics can be tested using table-top lasers. We performed particle-in-cell (PIC) codes to calculate the energy spectra of accelerated particles via laser plasma interactions. In our simulations, H+ and C+6 energy spectra produced from high power laser and plasma interactions were obtained using EPOCH 2D PIC code. These spectra were compared with proton and C+6 energy spectra and fluences in four different Earth orbits at different altitudes in space, obtained using the NASA AP-8MIN, the CREME-96 and the ESP-PSYCHIC models from the SPENVIS program. The comparisons between the results of EPOCH simulations and SPENVIS look promising in terms of the similarities of these spectra up to 190 MeV for protons and up to 1150 MeV for carbon ions. The idea of using accelerated particles from ultra-intense lasers rather than the conventional accelerator systems is promising for space radiation tests due to their wide energy range.

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Funding

The numerical calculations reported in this paper were partially performed at TUBITAK ULAKBIM, High Performance and Grid Computing Center (TRUBA resources). The research was supported by TUBITAK research project 118F077 and the Ministry of Development of Turkey (Grant no: 2015K121190). The EPOCH simulation studies of this work was in part funded by the UK EPSRC grants EP/G054950/1, EP/G056803/1, EP/G055165/1 EP/M018156/1 and EP/ M022-463/1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Middle East Technical University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey

    M. Yigitoglu Keskin & M. B. Demirkoz

  2. Research and Application Center for Space and Accelerator Technologies, 06800, Ankara, Turkey

    M. B. Demirkoz

  3. Department of Physics, Karamanoglu Mehmetbey University, 70200, Karaman, Turkey

    O. Culfa

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  1. M. Yigitoglu Keskin
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Correspondence to M. Yigitoglu Keskin, M. B. Demirkoz or O. Culfa.

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Keskin, M.Y., Demirkoz, M.B. & Culfa, O. A Novel Approach to Space Radiation Tests by Using High Power Laser Plasma Interactions. Plasma Phys. Rep. 49, 748–758 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063780X22602048

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