Bacterial cells enhance laser driven ion acceleration

Intense laser produced plasmas generate hot electrons which in turn leads to ion acceleration. Ability to generate faster ions or hotter electrons using the same laser parameters is one of the main outstanding paradigms in the intense laser-plasma physics. Here, we present a simple, albeit, unconventional target that succeeds in generating 700 keV carbon ions where conventional targets for the same laser parameters generate at most 40 keV. A few layers of micron sized bacteria coating on a polished surface increases the laser energy coupling and generates a hotter plasma which is more effective for the ion acceleration compared to the conventional polished targets. Particle-in-cell simulations show that micro-particle coated target are much more effective in ion acceleration as seen in the experiment. We envisage that the accelerated, high-energy carbon ions can be used as a source for multiple applications.