  The measurement of properties of exotic nuclei, essential for fundamental
nuclear physics, now confronts a formidable challenge for contemporary
radiofrequency accelerator technology. A promising option can be found in the
combination of state-of-the-art high-intensity short pulse laser system and
nuclear measurement techniques. We propose a novel Laser-driven Exotic Nuclei
extraction-acceleration method (LENex): a femtosecond petawatt laser,
irradiating a target bombarded by an external ion beam, extracts from the
target and accelerates to few GeV highly-charged nuclear reaction products.
Here a proof-of-principle experiment of LENex is presented: a few
hundred-terawatt laser focused onto an aluminum foil, with a small amount of
iron simulating nuclear reaction products, extracts almost fully stripped iron
nuclei and accelerate them up to 0.9 GeV. Our experiments and numerical
simulations show that short-lived, heavy exotic nuclei, with a much larger
charge-to-mass ratio than in conventional technology, can be obtained in the
form of an energetic, low-emittance, high-current beam.
