Multiple ionization of argon in coincidence with projectile ions in 60–120 MeV Si q+-Ar collisions

A projectile ion-recoil ion coincidence technique has been employed to study the multiple ionization and the charge transfer processes in collisions of 60–120 MeV Si ^q+ (q = 4−14) ions with neutral argon atoms. The relative contribution of different ionization channels, namely; direct ionization, electron capture and electron loss leading to the production of slow moving multiply charged argon recoil ions have been investigated. The data reported on the present collision system result from a direct measurement in the considered impact energy for the first time. The total ionization cross-sections for the recoil ions are shown to scale as q ^1.7/E _p ^0.5 , where E _p is the energy in MeV of the projectile and q its charge state. The recoil fractions for the cases of total- and direct ionizations are found to decrease with increasing recoil charge state j. The total ionization fractions of the recoils are seen to depend on q and to show the presence of a ‘shell-effect’ of the target. Further, the fractions are found to vary as 1/j ² upto j = 8+. The average recoil charge state 〈j〉 increases slowly with q and with the number of lost or captured electrons from or into the projectile respectively. The projectile charge changing cross-sections σ _qq′ are found to decrease with increasing q for loss ionization and to increase with q for direct-and capture ionization processes respectively. The physics behind various scaling rules that are found to follow our data for different ionization processes is reviewed and discussed.     

Microdroplet evolution induced by a laser pulse

Interaction between high-power ultrashort laser pulse and giant clusters (microdroplets) consisting of 10⁹ to 10¹⁰ atoms is considered. The microdroplet size is comparable to the laser wavelength. A model of the evolution of a microdroplet plasma induced by a high-power laser pulse is developed, and the processes taking place after interaction with the pulse are analyzed. It is shown theoretically that the plasma is superheated: its temperature is approximately equal to the ionization potential of an ion having a typical charge. The microdroplet plasma parameters are independent of the pulse shape and duration. The theoretical conclusions are supported by experimental studies of x-ray spectra conducted at JAERI, where a 100-terawatt Ti-sapphire laser system was used to irradiate krypton and xenon microdroplets by laser pulses with pulse widths of 30 to 500 fs and intensities of 6×10¹⁶ to 2×10¹⁹W/cm².     

The search for the existence of <Superscript>229m</Superscript>Th at IGISOL

An overview of preparatory work aiming at the identification of the low-lying 7.6 eV isomer in ²²⁹Th through a measurement of its hyperfine structure is presented. A ²³³U recoil gas cell has been developed and has undergone several iterations in order to improve the efficiency of extracting a low-energy beam of ²²⁹Th⁺ ions. Spectroscopic studies on stable ²³²Th have been carried out to establish an efficient laser ionization scheme. The latter will be applied in connection with the gas cell in order to improve the extraction efficiency by accessing the neutral atomic fraction. In addition to that of the ²²⁹Th ground state, the hyperfine structure of the isomer can then be determined either by collinear laser spectroscopy on the extracted and accelerated ions or by direct in-source/in-jet high-resolution Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (RIS). The first experiments using high-resolution RIS have been performed and isotope shifts of ²²⁸Th, ²²⁹Th and ²³⁰Th relative to ²³²Th were measured on an atomic 7s ² → 7s7p ground-state transition at 380.42 nm. A template of the ground-state hyperfine structure of ²²⁹Th has been established for a 261.24 nm UV transition. This is an important step towards identification of the isomeric state.     

A high-temperature laser ion source for trace analysis and other applications

We report here on the development of a high-temperature laser ion source useful for trace analysis and other applications. It consists of a high temperature ionization chamber, three tunable dye lasers pumped by copper vapor lasers for stepwise resonant ionization and a Mattauch-Herzog mass spectrometer for the analysis of photo-ions. The principle of the laser ion source and its theoretical efficiency are discussed, where the efficiency of a laser ion source is the ratio of photo-ions extracted out to the number of atoms introduced into the cavity. Experimentally, an efficiency of 2×10^–3 has been achieved for technetium. The scheme of gated detection is described which is used for suppressing isobaric background of molybdenum. The possible improvements are briefly mentioned for achieving isotopic analysis of 10⁸ atoms of ^97,98Tc in the presence of 10¹⁵ atoms of molybdenum, as separated chemically from molybdenum ore. Such an analysis of technetium isotopes produced in molybdenite ore by a (v,e ^–) reaction, is expected to yield information about the solar neutrino flux.Permanent address: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay 400085, India     

Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometry (RIMS) with Pulsed and CW-Lasers on Plutonium

The detection of long-lived plutonium isotopes in ultra-trace amounts by resonance ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS) is a well-established routine method. Detection limits of 10⁶ to 10⁷ atoms and precise measurements of the isotopic composition have been achieved. In this work multi-step resonance ionization of plutonium atoms has been performed with tunable lasers having very different output intensities and spectral properties. In order to compare different ways for the resonance ionization of plutonium broadband pulsed dye and titanium:sapphire lasers as well as narrow-band cw-diode and titanium:sapphire lasers have been applied for a number of efficient excitation schemes. It has been shown, that for identical excitation schemes the optical isotope selectivity can be improved by using cw-lasers (bandwidths < 10 MHz) instead of pulsed lasers (bandwidths > 2 GHz). Pulsed and cw-laser systems have been used simultaneously for resonance ionization enabling direct comparisons of pulsed and continuous ionization processes. So far, a three-step, three-color laser excitation scheme has been proven to be most practical in terms of efficiency, selectivity and laser wavelengths. Alternatively a newly discovered three-step, two-color excitation scheme which includes a strong two-photon transition from an excited state into a high-lying autoionizing state yields similar ionization efficiencies. This two-photon transition was characterized with respect to saturation behavior and line width.     

Formation of excited states of atoms and ions in laser plasma from CuInS2

Emission spectra and the energy distribution of the excited-state population density of atoms and ions in erosion laser plasma from CuInS₂ with various crystal-structure orderings are analyzed. It is shown that increased ordering of the target crystal structure causes the excited-state energies of indium atoms generated in the laser erosion plume to increase and that sulfur atoms always emit only in transitions from highly excited states. The ratio of relative ion concentrations in the laser plasma plume is Cu⁺/In⁺/S⁺ = 0.3/0.08/2, which corresponds neither to the atomic ratio of Cu/In/S (1/1/2) in the target nor to the ratio of ionization energies. The results are explained by recombination processes for ions and by the atomization specifics of the CuInS₂ target exposed to long-wavelength radiation. The atomization consists essentially of dissociative processes expressed by CuInS₂ → CuInS + S and CuInS₂ → Cu + InS + S. The electron temperature of polycrystal (single-crystal) plasma at a distance of 1 mm from the target is 0.3 eV (0.4 eV) for atoms and 1.3 eV (2.7 eV) for ions and varies negligibly for plasma up to a distance of 7 mm from the target. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 75, No. 2, pp. 217–223, March–April, 2008.     

Fractional ionization in plasmas produced by pulsed laser ablation

A pulsed infrared laser (Q-switched Nd:Yag) is employed to irradiate different metal targets having atomic number from Z =13 up to Z =82. The high laser fluence deposited on the metals, of the order of 100 v J/cm, produces high ablation yield and a plasma generation at the target surface. The emitted species are neutral and ionized atoms. Both components have been investigated in terms of yield emission, time-of-flight measurements and angular distribution. Results indicate that the main emission occurs mainly along the normal to the target surface, that the etching, at high fluence, is of the order of 10 v atoms/ pulse, that the atoms velocities are of the order of 10 v m/s, that the maximum ion energies are of the order of keV. During the laser irradiation, expanding and non-equilibrium plasma is produced in front of the target. The plasma has a fraction ionization depending by the metal species and generally within 10% and 80%. The plasma'temperature, at high fluence, can be theoretically calculated and reaches about 10 v K. The fractional ionization of the plasma, experimentally measured, has been investigated as a function of the laser fluence and of the energy binding of the target molecules. The ion emission yield is presented and discussed in view of the possibility to realize a laser ion source for ion accelerators.     

In-beam Mössbauer study of atomic jump processes

Interstitial jump processes are studied using “in-beam Mössbauer technique” combining Coulomb excitation and recoil implantation. After implantation of Coulomb-excited⁵⁷Fe into metals (α-Zr, Al, Nb and Au) at low temperature, a relatively large part of the implanted atoms ends up on interstitial positions yielding large quadrupole splittings. Inα-Zr, the interstitial line shows a clear quadrupole relaxation accompanied by a sharp decrease of the resonance intensity between 40 K and 100 K. This effect is interpreted as localized fast jumps of⁵⁷Fe atoms in the octahedral cage of the hep Zr lattice. A preliminary result from a time-differential measurement onZr ⁵⁷Fe is presented.

     

Short wavelength X-ray emission generated by highly excited cluster beams

X-ray radiation is studied for large clusters consisting of 10⁷–10¹⁰ atoms and irradiated by an intense laser pulse with an intensity ranged from (10¹⁴ up to 10¹⁸ W/cm²). The model is developed for such a laser plasma that includes the radiative transitions and the processes of excitation and quenching of multicharged ions of this plasma by electron impact. Due to interaction of a radiating multicharged ion with a surrounding plasma, spectral lines of emission are broaden and neighboring spectral lines are overlapped. As a result, the spectrum of radiation of multicharged ions is transformed into a continuous spectral band. The model under consideration includes important plasma processes including dielectronic recombination, spontaneous radiation, excitation, quenching and ionization of multicharged ions by electron impact. On the basis of the model developed the X-ray spectrum and spectral power are evaluated. In the range of laser intensities under consideration a laser plasma formed contains multicharged ions with charges Z = 26?36 that corresponds to the 3d-electron shell in the xenon case.     

A change in the conductivity of sodium-helium plasma interacting with polarization-modulated laser radiation tuned to sodium D 1 line

A change in the conductivity of a sodium-helium plasma interacting with laser radiation tuned to the sodium 3² S _1/2?3² P _1/2 transition and having sign-changing polarization is experimentally observed. It is shown that this effect is caused by the processes of Penning ionization, spin exchange, and optical orientation of atoms in a gas-discharge plasma.     

脉冲激光烧蚀材料等离子体反冲压力物理模型研究与应用

分析了脉冲激光烧蚀材料等离子体等温膨胀阶段的物理特性,建立了脉冲激光烧蚀材料等离子体压力三维方程与动力学模型.应用所建模型,数值分析了单脉冲激光烧蚀青铜金刚石砂轮等离子体相关特性,得到等离子体的反冲压力最大值870 Pa出现在约25 ns后,距离砂轮表面距离约0.05 mm处.相关条件下开展脉冲激光烧蚀青铜金刚石砂轮试验,采用高速相机观测烧蚀砂轮过程中的飞溅现象;采用光栅光谱仪测量等离子体空间发射光谱,计算了等离子体电子温度、电子密度以及反冲压力.实验表明脉冲激光烧蚀青铜金刚石砂轮等离子体反冲压力可以不计,同时也验证了气体方程与动力学模型的正确性和可行性,对脉冲光纤激光烧蚀工艺优化具有启示意义.     

Highly selective multistep ionization of atoms by laser radiation

The possibility of dramatic selectivity increase during the stepwise ionization of atoms due to selective excitation at every step has been examined. Evaluations have been made to estimate the selectivity of excitation and ionization by laser radiation of some atoms, their isotopic shifts of absorption lines being observed at several excitation steps, for instance those of U, Yb, Gd. During three-step ionization of Yb atoms in atomic beam one may obtain an excitation selectivity equal to 4.4 × 10¹⁶ cm².     

A laser ion source for on-line mass separation

A laser ion source based on resonance photo ionization in a gas cell is proposed. The gas cell, filled with helium, consists of a target chamber in which the recoil products are stopped and neutralized, and an ionization chamber where the atoms of interest are selectively ionized by the laser light. The extraction of the ions from the ionization chamber through the exit hole and skimmer is similar to the ion-guide system. The conditions to obtain an optimal system are given. The results of a two-step one-laser resonance photo ionization of nickel, and the first results of laser ionization in a helium buffer gas cell are presented.     

Influence of plasma discharge operating regime and laser beam intensity on optogalvanic spectra

The optogalvanic (OG) spectrum — over the tuning range of R 6G dye (568 nm to 605 nm) — of a Pr/Ne discharge tube is studied. The positive OG signals are approximately two orders of magnitude larger than the negative OG signals. The magnitude of the signals depend mainly on the operating regime of the discharge. Specifically, operation of the discharge in the abnormal glow regime leads to an enhancement in the negative OG signals. The operating point on theV-I characteristic of the discharge should be stipulated. To study the variation of the OG signal with the intensity of the laser beam two OG signals, of different polarities, were examined. We observed that with respect to positive OG signals, there is a trend towards pumping saturation. A minimum threshold of 0.3 kW laser power is required to generate negative OG signals. For the same attenuation in the laser beam there is a ten times more efficient reduction in the negative OG signals than in the case of positive OG signals. This confirms the important role of metastable atoms in the conduction in gas discharges.The hypothesis that negative OG signals can be obtained only abnormal glow regime needs more experimental data. The required study of the temporal variation in the OG signal with increase in the discharge current is being carried out and the results are to be published.     

铯47D精细能级超冷里德堡原子自由演化的动力学研究

用连续窄线宽激光器将超冷铯里德堡原子分别激发到47D_3/2, 47D_5/2精细态, 观察了处于里德堡精细态的铯原子向超冷铯等离子体自由演化的过程, 详细对比了不同精细态的铯里德堡原子预电离时间、电离速率以及等离子体的转化效率. 将里德堡原子快速转化为等离子体的过程解释为局域势阱内由预电离产生的电子与里德堡原子的快速碰撞导致的雪崩电离.     

以两种方法研究强激光场中的非时序双电离现象

以半经典再散射模型和量子S矩阵模型出发来研究强激光场中原子和分子的非时序双电离现象.分别利用这两个模型计算了电离率随激光强度的变化、反冲离子的动量分布、两出射电子的能量分布.数值结果表明半径典再散射模型和量子S矩阵模型在研究强场中原子和分子的非时序双电离现象时有很好的一致性.     

SCORPION: A system for coincidences between recoil and projectile ions at NSC, New Delhi

An on-line facility to measure coincidences between the recoil ions and the scattered projectiles (SCORPION) has been designed, fabricated and commissioned at Nuclear Science Centre (NSC), New Delhi. The facility consists of a four jaw slit assembly, a time of flight (TOF) spectrometer, a parallel plate electrostatic charge analyser and a one dimensional position sensitive parallel plate avalanche counter (PPAC). Details of the design and working principles of various components and the test results obtained for the Si ^q+-Ar collision system are presented to highlight the performance of the system. A multiple loss of up to four electrons has been observed for 60 MeV Si⁴⁺ ions colliding with argon atoms in a single collision condition. Spectra of recoil ions detected in coincidence with a particular charge state of the scattered projectile show a bell shaped distribution as a function of the recoil charge state (r) for the electron loss events. However, the yield of recoil ions drops asr increases for the direct ionization channel. Also for electron loss, the peak of the recoil ion distribution is seen to shift to a higher recoil charge state as the number of lost electrons from the projectile increases.     

脉冲激光诱导金属薄膜电离的分子动力学模拟

采用分子动力学方法模拟研究了激光诱导金属薄膜的电离过程,对激光等离子体形成早期原子的运动轨迹、薄膜表面的温度变化以及原子的电离特性进行了详细分析,并探究了脉冲激光参数对原子电离过程的影响.结果表明,在激光照射过程中,薄膜表面先熔化而后又气化,气化的原子继续吸收激光能量继而电离.激光的峰值功率密度越大,原子电离速率越快,电离数目越多,薄膜表面的温度越高.脉冲宽度越小,原子电离速率越快,薄膜表面的温度越高,但原子的电离数目先增加后减小.     

One-step implementation of an N-qubit quantum phase gate through a double Raman passage

We propose a scheme for controllably implementing an N-qubit phase gate by one step within a ground-state subspace of N three-state atoms trapped in a cavity through a double Raman passage.We can extend our scheme to the realisation of an arbitrary N-qubit phase gate by appropriately adjusting coupling strengths and detunings between atoms and external driving fields.The advantage of this one-step scheme is its robustness against decoherence.     

Impact of the Vibrationally Excited States on the Macroscopic Behaviour of the Band-like Electron Beam Discharge Plasma in H/H2-Mixture

The investigation of the impact of the vibrationally excited molecules in the electronic ground state was performed by simultaneously solving a balance equation system for the main charge carriers, the H atoms, the metastable H atoms, the H₂ molecules in the different vibrational states and for the power transfer of the electrons in the beam discharge mixture plasma. The balance equations for the vibrational states include in particular one-quantum step excitation and deexcitation, electronic excitation, dissociation and ionization from each vibrational level in electron collisions as well as the finite life time of these states because of the gas transfer through the band-like plasma. A main finding is that due to the additional impact of vibrationally excited molecules there is a marked enhancement of the resulting dissociation and ionization degree in the beam discharge plasma at medium power input from the turbulent electric field. For discharge parameters of practical interest the ionization and dissociation budget, the population of the vibrational states, the different energy dissipation processes and the energy pumping into the ladder of the vibrational states were calculated and discussed in detail.