Laguerre–Gaussian pulses for spin-polarized ion beam acceleration

Abstract Polarized particle sources have a plethora of applications, ranging from deep-inelastic scattering to nuclear fusion. One crucial challenge in laser–plasma interaction is maintaining the initial polarization of the target. Here, we propose the acceleration of spin-polarized helium-3 from near-critical density targets using high-intensity Laguerre–Gaussian laser pulses. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that magnetic vortex acceleration with these modes yields high polarization at the $90\%$ level, while also providing low-divergence beams.