Dense high-energy monoenergetic proton beams are vital for wide applications, thus modern laser-plasma-based ion-acceleration methods are aiming to obtain high-energy proton beams with energy spread as low as possible. In this work, we put forward a quantum radiative compression method to postcompress a highly accelerated proton beam and convert it to a dense quasimonoenergetic one. We find that when the relativistic plasma produced by radiation-pressure acceleration collides head on with an ultraintense laser beam, large-amplitude plasma oscillations are excited due to quantum radiation reaction and the ponderomotive force, which induce compression of the phase space of protons located in its acceleration phase with negative gradient. Our three-dimensional spin-resolved quantum electrodynamics (QED) particle-in-cell simulations show that hollow-structure proton beams with a peak energy approximately $\mathrm{GeV}$, relative energy spread of few percents, and number $N_p\sim {10}^{10}$ (or $N_p\sim {10}^9$ with a $1\mathrm{\%}$ energy spread) can be produced in near-future laser facilities, which may fulfill the requirements of alternative applications, such as, for radiography of ultrathick dense materials, or as injectors of hadron colliders.

• Received 29 April 2021
• Revised 17 January 2022
• Accepted 24 January 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.17.024049