Laser-driven creation of high-energy ions boosts next-gen accelerators

https://phys.org/news/2023-03-laser-driven-creation-high-energy-ions-boosts.html

"ultrashort ion beams only nanoseconds long... target electrons accelerated close to speed of light, changing refractive index and allowing laser to enter now transparent target... using two independent laser systems to replicate these results, we demonstrate that our technique can be applied to any of the many existing petawatt-class femtosecond laser facilities... treating cancer with high doses of more targeted radiation, and probing fundamental nature of matter"