Investigation on target normal sheath acceleration through measurements of ions energy distribution.

An experimental campaign aiming at investigating the ion acceleration mechanisms through laser-matter interaction in femtosecond domain has been carried out at the Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory facility with a laser intensity of up to 2 × 10(19) W/cm(2). A Thomson parabola spectrometer was used to obtain the spectra of the ions of the different species accelerated. Here, we show the energy spectra of light-ions and we discuss their dependence on structural characteristics of the target and the role of surface and target bulk in the acceleration process.