  We report on the concept of an innovative source to produce polarized
proton/deuteron beams of a kinetic energy up to several GeV from a laser-driven
plasma accelerator. Spin effects have been implemented into the PIC simulation
code VLPL to make theoretical predictions about the behavior of proton spins in
laser-induced plasmas. Simulations of spin-polarized targets show that the
polarization is conserved during the acceleration process. For the experimental
realization, a polarized HCl gas-jet target is under construction using the
fundamental wavelength of a Nd:YAG laser system to align the HCl bonds and
simultaneously circular polarized light of the fifth harmonic to
photo-dissociate, yielding nuclear polarized H atoms. Subsequently, their
degree of polarization is measured with a Lamb-shift polarimeter. The final
experiments, aiming at the first observation of a polarized particle beam from
laser-generated plasmas, will be carried out at the 10 PW laser system SULF at
SIOM/Shanghai.
