Proton and heavy ion acceleration in ultrahigh intensity (~2×10²⁰0.3em0exW0.3em0excm^-2) laser plasma interactions has been investigated using the new petawatt arm of the VULCAN laser. Nuclear activation techniques have been applied to make the first spatially integrated measurements of both proton and heavy ion acceleration from the same laser shots with heated and unheated Fe foil targets. Fe ions with energies greater than 100.3em0exMeV per nucleon have been observed. Effects of target heating on the accelerated ion energy spectra and the laser-to-ion energy conversion efficiencies are discussed. The laser-driven production of the long-lived isotope ⁵⁷Co (271 days) via a heavy ion induced reaction is demonstrated.
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McKenna et al. (2004) studied this question.