In the Light Sail concept, a thin reflecting object is accelerated as a moving mirror by the pressure of electromagnetic radiation. While laser-driven light sails have been recently in press highlights as an ambitious approach to send probes up to the nearest star at three light years from Earth, on the miniaturized scale of nanometric sails and femtosecond lasers they are being investigated as a compact accelerator. It was proposed already a few years ago that the use of pulses with circular polarization is optimal because the detrimental heating of the sail is minimized.
Using the ASTRA-GEMINI laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, a team including UK and Italian scientists has demonstrated much higher ion energies for circular, than for linear polarization, which is a major step forward applications in warm dense matter production and in medicine (e.g. ion beam therapy, isotope production). The team included the CNR/INO scientists Andrea Sgattoni, who performed massively parallel 3D computer simulations of the experiment, and Andrea Macchi, who supported the theoretical interpretation and was amongst the original proposers of the circular polarization option.

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