Solid-state laser system for laser cooling of sodium

We demonstrate a frequency-stabilized, all-solid laser source at 589 nm with up to 800 mW output power. The laser relies on sum-frequency generation from two laser sources at 1064 nm and 1319 nm through a PPKTP crystal in a doubly resonant cavity. We obtain conversion efficiencies as high as 2 W/W² after careful optimization of the cavity parameters. The output wavelength is tunable over 60 GHz, which is sufficient to lock on the sodium D₂ line. The robustness, beam quality, spectral narrowness and tunability of our source make it an alternative to dye lasers for atomic physics experiments with sodium atoms.     

High current density ion-beam extraction

High current density (up to 700 mA/cm²) ion-beam extraction has been studied by 3D code KOBRA3-INP [INP, Junkerstr. 99, 65205 Wiesbaden, Germany]. Ion beams with such high current densities can be generated by ECR ion source driven by 37.5 GHz/100 kW gyrotron [Golubev S.V. et al. Trans. Furion Sci. Technol., 47, n. 1T, fuste 8, 345]. The influence of plasma parameters on extracted ion beam has been investigated. Different geometries of extraction system and applied potentials have been simulated to optimize extracted and transported ion beam current. KOBRA3-INP code has been applied to simulate ion-beam transport as well. The results of simulations have been compared with experimental results. Good agreement between measurements and simulations was always found by varying ion-beam space-charge compensation degree.     

Milliampere He2+ beam generator using a compact GHz ECRIS

Multi-charged helium ion beam He2+ is useful for helium accelerator to obtain a higher energy with lower cost and for deuterium accelerator to avoid neutron activation during machine commissioning.An attempt to generate milliampere multi-charged helium He2+ion beam with a 2.45 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source(ECRIS) was tested recently.A design using a specfic permanent magnet 2.45 GHz ECRIS(PMECRIS) source(ERCIS) is reported and the He2+beam production ability is described.With this source,we produced a total helium beam of 40 mA at 40 kV with 180 W of net microwave power and a gas flow of less than 0.5 sccm.At steady state the He2+beam intensity is 4.4 mA,that being the fraction of multi-charged helium ion beam is at approximately 11%.     

Investigation of the low-lying isomer in 229Th by collinear laser spectroscopy

A new ion beam of ²²⁹Th is available at the Jyväsklyä IGISOL facility, produced from the α decay of ²³³U. A small branching ratio (≈ 2%) is believed to populate the inferred low-lying (5.5 eV) isomeric state in ²²⁹Th. A laser ionization scheme is currently being developed to improve the yield of ²²⁹Th from the source. The ion source uses a novel electric field configuration for fast and efficient extraction of α-recoils and is able to provide beams of short lived (τ≥ 30 ms) radioactive nuclei. Identification of the isomeric state by collinear laser spectroscopy will reduce the lower lifetime limit of the state and provide the first direct evidence for its existence.     

The TITAN mass measurement facility at TRIUMF-ISAC

The TITAN facility at TRIUMF-ISAC will use four ion traps with the primary goal of determining nuclear masses with high precision, particularly for short lived isotopes with lifetimes down to approximately 10 ms. The design value for the accuracy of the mass measurement is 1 ×10^???8. The four main components in the facility are an RF cooler/buncher (RFCT) receiving the incoming ion beam, an electron beam ion trap (EBIT) to breed the ions to higher charge states, a cooler Penning trap (CPET) to cool the highly charged ions, and finally the measurement Penning trap (MPET) for the precision mass determination. Additional goals for this system are laser spectroscopy on ions extracted from the RFCT and beta spectroscopy in the EBIT (in Penning trap mode) on ions that are purified using selective buffer gas cooling in the CPET. The physics motivation for the mass measurements are manifold, from unitarity tests of the CKM matrix to nuclear structure very far from the valley of stability, nuclear astrophysics and the study of halo-nuclei. As a first measurement the mass of ¹¹Li will be determined. With a lifetime of 8.7 ms and a demonstrated production rate of 4×10⁴ ions/sec at ISAC the goal for this measurement at TITAN is a relative uncertainty of 5×10^???8. This would check previous conflicting measurements and provide information for nuclear theory and models.     

Purity and resistivity improvements for electron-beam-induced deposition of Pt

Electron-beam-induced deposition (EBID) of platinum is used by many researchers. Its main application is the formation of a protective layer and the “welding material” for making a TEM lamella with a focused ion beam thinning process. For this application, the actual composition of the deposition is less relevant, and in practice, both the mechanical strength and the conductivity are sufficient. Another important application is the creation of an electrical connection to nanoscale structures such as nano-wires and graphene. To serve as an electrical contact, the resistivity of the Pt deposited structure has to be sufficiently low. Using the commonly used precursor MeCpPtMe₃ for deposition, the resistivity as created by the basic process is 10⁺⁵–10⁺⁶ higher than the value for bulk Pt, which is 10.6 µΩ cm. The reason for this is the high abundance of carbon in the deposition. To improve the deposition process, much attention has been given by the research community to parameter optimization, to ex situ or in situ removal of carbon by anneal steps, to prevention of carbon deposition by use of a carbon-free precursor, to electron beam irradiation under a high flux of oxygen and to the combination with other techniques such as atomic layer deposition (ALD). In the latter technique, the EBID structures are used as a 1-nm-thick seed layer only, while the ALD is used to selectively add pure Pt. These techniques have resulted in a low resistivity, today approaching the 10–150 µΩ cm, while the size and shape of the structure are preserved. Therefore, now, the technique is ready for application in the field of contacting nano-wires.     

Resonance ionization spectroscopy of bismuth at the IGISOL facility

A programme of research has commenced at the IGISOL facility, Jyväskylä, combining the technique of resonance ionization spectroscopy with the development of the highly selective laser ion source trap (LIST). The first element of interest is bismuth, which contains three isomers of multi-quasiparticle states in near-spherical nuclei, namely ²⁰⁷Bi (21/2⁺, 182 μs), ²⁰⁴Bi (10^?, 13 ms) and ²⁰⁴Bi (17⁺, 1.07 ms). A measurement of the optical isomer shift provides a direct comparison of the mean?square charge radii between the isomer and the nuclear ground state. Due to the short isomer lifetimes the spectroscopy will be done either within the ion guide or in a sextupole ion beam guide (SPIG), located after the ion guide and used in the development of the LIST. A mixed dye-Ti:Sapphire laser ionization scheme has been successfully tested for bismuth and first off-line results have been obtained.     

A terahertz photonic crystal cavity with high Q-factors

A terahertz 1D photonic crystal cavity with very high Q-factor is demonstrated. The cavity consists of two parallel distributed Bragg mirrors and one air layer between them as defect layer. By increasing the length of the defect layer, the cavity has a very narrow transmission bandwidth of 30 MHz at resonant frequency of 336 GHz, i.e., a high Q over 1.1 × 10⁴ is achieved. Furthermore, an optically controllable THz switch is demonstrated by light irradiating on one of the middle silicon wafer in the cavity. And the power of optical beam needed for the switch is remarkably reduced to 0.16 W/cm², which is nearly 50 times smaller than that for a THz switch using a single silicon wafer.     

Progress and upgrading of the Heidelberg high current injector

A specialized rf-accelerator system HSI consisting of two RFQ’s and 8 rf seven-gap cavities was built for injection of high intensities of singly charged heavy ions into the Heidelberg heavy ion storage ring TSR. With different ion sources, this system now is used to deliver positive or negative, atomic and molecular ion beams with energies between 150 keV/a.m.u. and 5.3 MeV/a.m.u. final energy. For a future replacement of the MP-tandem-postaccelerator-system the new HSI-accelerator is to be equipped with an ECR source for high intensities of highly charged ions. An advanced commercial ECR source with a 18 GHz rf klystron and an adjustable extraction system for adaption of a wide range of injection energies has been commissioned at the manufacturer and is delivered. Test bench operation presently is in preparation at Heidelberg. A stripper section with an achromatic charge state selector is under construction between injector and postaccelerator. Other ion sources, e.g., for ultra cold H ₃ ⁺ molecular ion beams are under development.     

Novel cross-linked membrane for direct methanol fuel cell application: sulfonated poly(ether ether nitrile)s

In order to reduce water uptake, swelling ratio, and methanol permeability in sulfonated proton exchange membranes (PEM), novel-sulfonated aromatic poly(ether ether nitrile)s-bearing pendant propenyl groups had been synthesized by direct copolymerization method. All the results showed that the propenyl groups were suitable cross-linkable groups, and that this method was an effective way to overcome the drawbacks of sulfonated polymers at high ion exchange capacity (IEC) values. By cross-linking, the water uptake, swelling ratio, and methanol diffusion could be restricted owing to the formation of compact network structure. For example, CSPEN-60 membranes showed the proton conductivity of 0.072 S cm^?1 at 80 °C, while the swelling ratios and water uptake (17.9 and 60.7 %) were much lower than that of the SPEN-60 membrane (60.8 and 295.2 %). Meanwhile, a 1.1 × 10^?7 cm² s^?1 of methanol diffusion was obtained which was much lower than that of Nafion 117 (14.1 × 10^?7 cm² s^?1). Although the proton conductivity of the CSPEN-60 membranes is lower than that of the SPEN-60 membrane, the selectivity is much higher. The CSPEN-60 membrane exhibited the highest selectivity among the tested membranes, about 5.8 times higher compared with that of Nafion117.     

Planar electron beams in a wiggler magnet array

Transport of high current (～kA range with particle energy ～1 MeV) planar electron beams is a topic of increasing interest for applications in high-power (1–10 GW) and high-frequency (10–20 GHz) microwave devices such as backward wave oscillator (BWO), klystrons, gyro-BWOs, etc. In this paper, we give a simulated result for transport of electron beams with velocity $V_{\rm b} = 5.23 \times 10^{8}$  cm s^???1, relativistic factor γ?=?1.16, and beam voltage = ～80 kV in notched wiggler magnet array. The calculation includes self-consistent effects of beam-generated fields. Our results show that the notched wiggler configuration with ～6.97 kG magnetic field strength can provide vertical and horizontal confinements for a sheet electron beam with 0.3 cm thickness and 2 cm width. The feasibility calculation addresses to a system expected to drive for 13–20 GHz BWO with rippled waveguide parameters as width w?=?3.0 cm, thickness t?=?1.0 cm, corrugation depth h?=?0.225 cm, and spatial periodicity d?=?1.67 cm.     

Bright perspectives for nuclear photonics

With the advent of new high-power, short-pulse laser facilities in combination with novel technologies for the production of highly brilliant, intense γ beams (like, e.g., Extreme Light Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) in Bucharest, MEGaRay in Livermore or a planned upgrade of the HIγS facility at Duke University), unprecedented perspectives will open up in the coming years for photonuclear physics both in basic sciences as in various fields of applications. Ultra-high sensitivity will be enabled by an envisaged increase of the γ-beam spectral density from the presently typical 10²γ/eVs to about 10⁴γ/eVs, thus enabling a new quality of nuclear photonics [1], assisted by new γ-optical elements [2]. Photonuclear reactions with highly brilliant γ beams will allow to produce radioisotopes for nuclear medicine with much higher specific activity and/or more economically than with conventional methods. This will open the door for completely new clinical applications of radioisotopes [3]. The isotopic, state-selective sensitivity of the well-established technique of nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) will be boosted by the drastically reduced energy bandwidth (<0.1%) of the novel γ beams. Together with a much higher intensity of these beams, this will pave the road towards a γ-beam based non-invasive tomography and microscopy, assisting the management of nuclear materials, such as radioactive waste management, the detection of nuclear fissile material in the recycling process or the detection of clandestine fissile materials. Moreover, also secondary sources like low-energy, pulsed, polarized neutron beams of high intensity and high brilliance [4] or a new type of positron source with significantly increased brilliance, for the first time fully polarized [5], can be realized and lead to new applications in solid state physics or material sciences.     

Picosecond diode-pumped 1.5 μm Er,Yb:glass lasers operating at 10–100 GHz repetition rate

Stable ultrafast laser sources at multi-GHz repetition rates are important for various application areas, such as optical sampling, frequency comb metrology, or advanced high-speed return-to-zero telecom systems. We review SESAM-mode-locked Er,Yb:glass lasers operating in the 1.5 μm spectral region at multi-GHz repetition rates, discussing the key improvements that have enabled increasing the repetition rate up to 100 GHz. We also present further improved results with shorter pulse durations from a 100 GHz Er,Yb:glass laser. With an improved SESAM design we achieved 1.1 ps pulses with up to 30 mW average output power. Moreover, we discuss for the first time the importance of beam quality deteriorations arising from frequency-degenerate higher order spatial modes in such lasers.     

Optical and Structural Modifications in Heavy Ion Irradiated Polystyrene

Samples of polystyrene (PS) have been irradiated with ⁶⁴Cu (50 and 120 MeV) and ¹²C (70 MeV) ion beams (fluence=10¹¹ to 10¹³ ions cm^?2) in order to study the induced modifications using UV‐VIS and FTIR spectroscopy. UV spectra of irradiated samples reveal that the optical band gap decreases from 4.36 to 1.46 eV in PS. The decrease in optical band gap is more pronounced with the Cu‐ion beam due to high electronic energy loss as compared to the C ion beam. The effect of low energy (50 MeV) Cu ions on the optical properties of PS is larger than that due to high energy (120 MeV) Cu ions. The correlation between the optical band gap and the number of six member carbon rings inside the largest carbon clusters embedded in the network of polystyrene is discussed. FTIR spectra reveal the formation of hydroxyl, alkene, and alkyne groups in the Cu‐ion irradiated PS. Changes in the intensity of the absorption bands on irradiation with C‐ion relative to pristine samples have also been observed and are discussed.     

Laser ion source activities at Brookhaven National Laboratory

In Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), we have been developing laser ion sources for diverse accelerators. Tabletop Nd:YAG lasers with up to several Joules of energy are mainly used to create ablation plasmas for stable operations. The obtained charge states depend on laser power density and target species. Two types of ion extraction schemes, direct plasma injection scheme (DPIS) and conventional static extraction, are used depending on the application. We optimized and selected a suitable laser irradiation condition and a beam extraction scheme to meet the requirement of the following accelerator system. We have demonstrated to accelerate more than 5?×?10¹⁰ of C⁶⁺ ions using the DPIS. We successfully commissioned a low-charge ion beam provider to the user facilities in BNL. To achieve higher current, higher charge state and lower emittance, further studies will continue.     

The loss of boron in ultra-shallow boron implanted Si under heavy ion irradiation

Heavy ion impact has been known to cause a loss of light elements from the near-surface region of the irradiated sample. One of the possible approaches to a better understanding of the processes responsible for the release of specific elements is to irradiate shallow-implanted samples, which exhibit a well-known depth distribution of the implanted species. In this work, the samples studied were produced by implantation of Si<1 0 0>wafers with ¹¹B at implantation energies of 250 and 500 eV and fluence of 1.0×10¹⁵ atoms/cm ². Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis was applied to monitor the remnant boron fluence in the sample. Irradiation of the samples by a 14.2 MeV ¹⁹F ⁴⁺ beam resulted in a slow decrease of boron remnant fluence with initial loss rates of the order of 0.05 B atom per impact ion. Under irradiation with 12 MeV ³²S ³⁺ ions, the remnant boron fluence in Si decreased exponentially with a much faster loss rate of boron and became constant after a certain heavy ion irradiation dose. A simple model, which assumes a finite desorption range and corresponding depletion of the near-surface region, was used to describe the observations. The depletion depths under the given irradiation conditions were calculated from the measured data.     

Strangeness Nuclear Physics at J-PARC

After the big earthquake in the east part of Japan on March 11, 2011, the beams in the hadron experimental hall at J-PARC have been successfully recovered in February, 2012. The experimental program using pion beams is now on-going with the primary proton beam power of ~5 kW. Before a long summer shutdown scheduled in 2013, several experiments in strangeness nuclear physics are going to take data. In this period, we anticipate the beam power would exceed 10 kW and the experiments to use K ^? beams will start. The experimental program is explained briefly.     

Triband phase shifter design using split-ring resonator and complementary split-ring resonator-loaded ground plane for wireless applications

This paper presents the design of a novel linear analog planar phase shifter deploying split-ring resonator (SRR) and complementary split-ring resonator (CSRR) structures. Based on the advantages of these structures, a triband phase shifter is designed for multiple target systems to operate at 0.85, 1.69, and 2.46 GHz bands finding applications for European RFIDs, Satellite Radio Broadcast System, Mobile Services, and ISM Band, respectively. The effect of SRR and CSRR coupling with host transmission line is also analyzed on the basis of Bloch mode theory and the modes are validated through Eigen mode analysis. The proposed phase shifter design shows a good agreement between simulated and measured results. A 90^° ± 8^° shift in phase is observed at lower and upper bands, and a 135^° ± 8^° shift is observed in center band with reasonable group delay components.     

Optical and electrical properties of swift heavy ion beam-irradiated polycarbonate/polystyrene bilayer films

Polycarbonate/polystyrene bilayer films prepared by solvent-casting method were irradiated with 55 MeV carbon ion beam at different fluences ranging from 1×10¹¹ to 1×10¹³ ions cm^?2. The structural, optical, surface morphology and dielectric properties of these films were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–visible spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, optical microscopy and dielectric measurements. The XRD pattern shows that the percentage of crystallinity decreases while inter-chain separations increase with ion fluence. UV–visible spectroscopy shows that the energy band gap decreases and the number of carbon atoms in nanoclusters increase with the increase in ion fluences. The refractive index is also found to decrease with the increase in the ion fluence. Optical microscopy shows that after irradiation polymeric bilayer films color changes with ion fluences. The FTIR spectra evidenced a very small change in cross-linking and chain scissoring at high fluence. Dielectric constant decreases while dielectric loss and AC conductivity increase with ion fluences.