Monoenergetic proton beams accelerated by a radiation pressure driven shock.

We report on the acceleration of impurity-free quasimononenergetic proton beams from an initially gaseous hydrogen target driven by an intense infrared (λ=10 μm) laser. The front surface of the target was observed by optical probing to be driven forward by the radiation pressure of the laser. A proton beam of ∼MeV energy was simultaneously recorded with narrow energy spread (σ∼4%), low normalized emittance (∼8 nm), and negligible background. The scaling of proton energy with the ratio of intensity over density (I/n) confirms that the acceleration is due to the radiation pressure driven shock.