Dataset for "Synchronised Laser-Driven Ion Acceleration in a Tailored Density Profile"

Dataset for the publication "Laser-Driven Ion via Ponderomotive Self-Injection". This simulation study demonstrates through particle-in-cell simulations a hybrid ion acceleration scheme based on optically tailored plasma density profiles. Ions are initially pre-accelerated in a near-critical density plasma slab via hole-boring Radiation Pressure Acceleration, before being self-injected into an electrostatic field, co-propagating with the driving laser pulse, in a relativistically underdense rear-surface density gradient. This phase matched configuration enables sustained ion acceleration over an extended plasma length. Using Bayesian Optimisation, we tailor the density profile for a fixed laser power, achieving 2 GeV maximum proton energies with currently achievable laser parameters. Compared with laser acceleration from ultrathin foils, the maximum proton energy exhibits a markedly steeper scaling with laser intensity, highlighting the potential of target density tailoring for next-generation laser-driven ion sources. Simulations were performed on the ARCHER2 cluster using the particle-in-cell code EPOCH. EPOCH is available from the Warwick Plasma GitHub repository. Two- and three-dimensional simulations were investigated and each input deck is supplied for each laser power sampled in the paper and for both, the proposed acceleration scheme and a benchmark acceleration scheme utilising a circular polarised laser pulse irradiating an ultrathin target. Accompanying python scripts are included which, once simulations are completed, recreate each figure (Figure 1-5) in the published paper. We acknowledge support from EPSRC through grants EP/P010059/1 and EP/X035336/1 (Plasma HPC). The EPOCH code used in this work was in part funded by the UK EPSRC grants EP/G054950/1, EP/G056803/1, EP/G055165/1, EP/ M022463/1 and EP/P02212X/1. N.K. acknowledges support from AWE. UK Ministry of Defence © Crown owned copyright 2026/AWE