Hundreds-GeV Au ion generation by 1022–24 W cm−2 laser pulses interacting with high-Z grain doped gas

Collision of intermediate-energy heavy ions is an important way to investigate the state of high-density nuclear matter and formation of quark gluon plasmas. In this paper, we demonstrate from two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations that hundreds-GeV Au79+ ions can be generated by ultrashort ∼1022–24 W cm−2 lasers interacting with high-Z grain doped gas. Under extremely intense laser field, strong γ-ray radiation has resulted in massive laser energy loss, and the invoked radiation reaction trapping of electrons weakens the heavy ion acceleration. However, due to hole-boring acceleration and multi-body expansion acceleration of high-Z grains, the energy conversion efficiency from laser to heavy ions is still up to 32%. Our results might provide an effective routine to carry out the experimental explorations of heavy-ion collisions by using hundreds-petawatt laser facilities.