Experimental results of DPIS with a new RFQ

We have developed a new heavy ion production system which uses a combination of an RFQ and a laser ion source. Induced plasma by a laser shot is delivered to the RFQ without an extraction electrode. We named this new idea ‘direct plasma injection scheme (DPIS)’. In 2004, a new RFQ was built for demonstrating the capability of the DPIS. After a few months of commissioning period, we could obtain more than 60 mA of carbon beam from the RFQ. This new scheme could be applied to cancer therapy facilities and high energy nuclear physics accelerator complexes.     

Anomalous behaviour of laser cooled fast ion beams

We have observed a sudden disappearance of intrabeam scattering in a laser cooled stored ⁹Be⁺ beam at the Heidelberg Test Storage Ring. The transition takes place at about 10⁶ ions corresponding to a mean ion distance of ≃50c μm. The disappearance of IBS is accompanied by a decrease of the longitudinal temperature by more than two orders of magnitude. At the same time, the transverse width of the ion beam shows an increase which is limited to the diameter of the laser beam. Experimental signatures of this anomalous beam behaviour are described, and possible interpretations are discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

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.     

Non-equilibrium plasma production by pulsed laser ablation of gold

A gold target has been irradiated with a Q-switched Nd:Yag laser having 1064?nm wavelength, 9?ns pulse width, 900?mJ maximum pulse energy and a maximum power density of the order of 10¹⁰?W/cm². The laser–target interaction produces a strong gold etching with production of a plasma in front of the target. The plasma contains neutrals and ions having a high charge state. Time-of-flight (TOF) measurements are presented for the analysis of the ion production and ion velocity. A cylindrical electrostatic deflection ion analyzer permits measurement of the yield of the emitted ions, their charge state and their ion energy distribution. Measurements indicate that the ion charge state reaches 6⁺ and 10⁺ at a laser fluence of 100?J/cm² and 160?J/cm², respectively. The maximum ion energy reaches about 2?keV and 8?keV at these low and high laser fluences, respectively. Experimental ion energy distributions are given as a function of the ion charge state. Obtained results indicate that electrical fields, produced in the plume, along the normal to the plane of the target surface, exist in the unstable plasma. The electrical fields induce ion acceleration away from the target with a final velocity dependent on the ion charge state. The ion velocity distributions follow a “shifted Maxwellian distribution”, which the authors have corrected for the Coulomb interactions occurring inside the plasma.     

Conceptional design of the laser ion source based hadrontherapy facility

A laser ion source (LIS), which can provide a carbon beam with highly stripped state (C⁶⁺) and high intensity (several tens mA), would significantly change the overall design of the hadrontherapy facility. The proposed LIS based hadrontherapy facility has the advantages of short linac length, simple injection scheme, and small synchrotron size. With the experience from the DPIS and HITFiL projects that have been conducted in IMP, a conceptional design of the LIS based hadrontherapy facility will be presented, with special attention given to APF type IH DTL design and simulation.     

激光准直Cr原子束的实验研究

利用多普勒原理对Cr原子束进行横向准直.应用激光感生荧光技术稳定激光器的频率，把激光器的中心频率稳定在偏离Cr原子共振中心频率-5±0.26MHz的位置.根据理论计算出准直激光束的最小尺寸为13.7mm.根据实验数据选择合适的参数，实现利用多普勒原理横向准直Cr原子束，使原子束的横向分布缩小到原来的1/3. 关键词： 激光准直 激光感生荧光稳频 多普勒冷却     

Ion implantation induced by Cu ablation at high laser fluence

High energy laser plasma-produced Cu ions have been implanted in silicon substrates placed at different distances and angles with respect to the normal to the surface of the ablated target. The implanted samples have been produced using the iodine high power Prague Asterix Laser System (PALS) using 438 nm wavelength irradiating in vacuum a Cu target. The high laser pulse energy (up to 230 J) and the short pulse duration (400 ps) produced a non-equilibrium plasma expanding mainly along the normal to the Cu target surface. Time-of-flight (TOF) technique was employed, through an electrostatic ion energy analyzer (IEA) placed along the target normal, in order to measure the ion energy, the ion charge state, the energy distribution and the charge state distribution. Ions had a Boltzmann energy distributions with an energy increasing with the charge state. At a laser fluence of the order of 6 × 10⁶ J/cm², the maximum ion energy was about 600 keV and the maximum charge state was about 27+.In order to investigate the implantation processes, Cu depth profiles have been performed with Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) of 1.5 MeV helium ions, Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) with 3 keV electron beam and 1 keV Ar sputtering ions in combination with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Surface analysis results indicate that Cu ions are implanted within the first surface layers and that the ion penetration ranges are in agreement with the ion energy measured with IEA analysis.     

Preparation of relativistic 7Li+ ion beams for precision experiments at storage rings

Heavy ion storage rings allow for tests of the structure of local space time via the Doppler effect. At the TSR/Heidelberg an experiment with high resolution laser spectroscopy at ⁷Li⁺ is performed. To gain the maximum resolution for saturation spectroscopy new methods of relativistic ion beam preparation and diagnostics have been developed. The laser cooling of the beam allows for precision determination of the mean velocity of the ions. A novel phase synchronous detection scheme, ultimately sensitive to single ions, gives insights into the cooling mechanism and dynamics. With an additional synchronous excitation scheme systematic uncertainties of the test experiment can be drastically reduced. After separation of the ground state ions from the triplet states of ⁷Li⁺ by the combination of laser and electron cooling, a bunched and cooled ensemble of fast moving high precision clocks with minimized perturbations by space charge effects and intra beam scattering is available. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

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.     

Intense beam production with ECR ion sources

Electron cyclotron resonance ion sources are now able to attain a beam current as high as some milliamperes, which until a few years ago was obtained only for pulsed laser ion sources with a much higher emittance and energy spread, by keeping also the possibility to produce high charge states close to electron beam ion sources, at much higher intensity. They usually operate at frequencies up to 18 GHz, but now many sources are able to operate or will be able, at 28 GHz frequency or more, with plasma density of the order of 10¹³ cm^?3, much higher than any other source of the previous generation. The state-of-the-art technique will be described along with the major characteristics of the upcoming sources.     

Tungsten ions produced by infrared pulsed laser irradiation

Energetic ions have been obtained irradiating a tungsten target with a Q-switched Nd:Yag laser, 1064?nm wavelength, 9?ns pulse width, 900?mJ maximum pulse energy and power density of the order of 10¹⁰?W/cm². The laser-target interaction induces a strong metal etching with production of plasma in front of the target. The plasma contains neutrals and ions with high charge state. Time-of-flight measurements are presented for qualitative analysis of the ion production. A cylindrical electrostatic ion analyzer permits measuring of the yield of emitted ions, the charge state of detected ions and the ion energy distribution. Measurements indicate that, at a laser fluence of the order of 100?J/cm², the charge state may reach 9+ and the ion energy reaches about 5?keV. The ion energy distribution is given as a function of the charge state. Experimental results indicate that an electrical field is developed along the normal to the plane of the target surface, which accelerates the ions up to high velocity. The ion velocity distributions follow a “shifted Maxwellian distribution”, which the author has corrected for the Coulomb interactions occurring inside the plasma.     

A continuous cold atomic beam from a magneto-optical trap

We have developed and characterized a new method to produce a continuous beam of cold atoms from a standard vapour-cell magneto-optical trap (MOT). The experimental apparatus is very simple. Using a single laser beam it is possible to hollow out in the source MOT a direction of unbalanced radiation pressure along which cold atoms can be accelerated out of the trap. The transverse cooling process that takes place during the extraction reduces the beam divergence. The atomic beam is used to load a magneto-optical trap operating in an ultra-high vacuum environment. At a vapour pressure of 10^-8mbar in the loading cell, we have produced a continuous flux of 7×10⁷atoms/s at the recapture cell with a mean velocity of 14 m/s. A comparison of this method with a pulsed transfer scheme is presented. Received 19 February 2001     

Advanced targets,diagnostics and applications of laser-generated plasmas

High-intensity sub-nanosecond-pulsed lasers irradiating thin targets in vacuum permit generation of electrons and ion acceleration and high photon yield emission in non-equilibrium plasmas. At intensities higher than 10¹⁵?W/cm² thin foils can be irradiated in the target-normal sheath acceleration regime driving ion acceleration in the forward direction above 1?MeV per charge state. The distributions of emitted ions in terms of energy, charge state and angular emission are controlled by laser parameters, irradiation conditions, target geometry and composition. Advanced targets can be employed to increase the laser absorption in thin foils and to enhance the energy and the yield of the ion acceleration process. Semiconductor detectors, Thomson parabola spectrometer and streak camera can be employed as online plasma diagnostics to monitor the plasma parameters, shot by shot. Some applications in the field of the multiple ion implantation, hadrontherapy and nuclear physics are reported.     

The Effect of Pre-plasma and Self-focusing on Characteristics of Laser Produced Ions

Generation of various ion groups was studied using lasers of different pulse length and intensities. Up to thirteen ion subgroups have been distinguished when using the PALS iodine laser system in experiments that involve a laser interaction with a preformed plasma. In addition to generally accepted thermal, fast, and slow ion groups, the existence of the second fast (superfast) group was clearly proven. The threshold laser intensity I _L necessary fo appearance of nonlinear effects was confirmed to be × 10¹⁴W/cm² at our experimental conditions. Above this value, there exists an interval of laser focus positions in front of the target in which ions with significantly higher charge states and energies are produced, compared to experiments without pre-plasma interactions, due to nonlinear processes in preformed plasma.     

The RHIC polarized source upgrade

The RHIC polarized H^? ion source is being upgraded to higher intensity and polarization for use in the RHIC polarization physics program at enhanced luminosity RHIC operation. The higher beam intensity will allow reduction of the longitudinal transverse beam emittance at injection to AGS to reduce polarization losses in AGS. There is also a planned RHIC luminosity upgrade by using the electron beam lens to compensate the beam-beam interaction at collision points. This upgrade is also essential for future BNL plans for a high-luminosity electron-proton (ion) Collider eRHIC. The basic limitations on the high-intensity H^? ion beam production in charge-exchange collisions of the neutral atomic hydrogen beam in the Na-vapor jet ionizer cell were experimentally studied.     

Laser ion beam formation for nanotechnologies

It is suggested to generate cold ion beams by laser collimation and subsequent laser ionization of a primary atomic beam. The primary beam, formed by a standard method, is collimated through transverse cooling by resonance laser radiation. Laser radiation is also used for the multistep ionization of atoms in the collimated beam. Advantages of the proposed method are a low scatter of the initial ion energy (below 10^?1 eV) and a high emittance in the region of the virtual source (～10^?6 cm rad at a beam current on the level of microamperes). The high monochromaticity of the obtained ion beam allows the chromatic aberration effect to be significantly suppressed, which implies good prospects for using such sources in ion beam lithography. The proposed method also allows the spectrum of elements used in ion beam sources to be expanded, which is an independent technological advantage.     

Low energy ion beams by laser interaction

We developed an ion accelerator with a double accelerating gap system supplied by two power generators of different polarity. The ions were generated by laser ion source technique. The laser plasma induced by an excimer KrF laser, freely expanded before the action of accelerating fields. After the first gap action, the ions were again accelerated by a second gap. The total acceleration can imprint a maximum ion energy up to 160 keV per charge state. We analysed the extracted charge from a Cu target as a function of the accelerating voltage at laser energy of 9, 11 and 17 mJ deposited on a spot of 0.005 cm². The peak of current density was 3.9 and 5.3 mA for the lower and medium laser energy at 60 kV. At the highest laser energy, the maximum output current was 11.7 mA with an accelerating voltage of 50 kV. The maximum ion dose was estimated to be 10¹² ions/cm². Under the condition of 60 kV accelerating voltage and 5.3 mA output current the normalized emittance of the beam measured by pepper pot method was 0.22 π mm mrad.     

Laser Cooling and Spectroscopy of Relativistic C^{3+} Beams at the ESR

We report on the first laser cooling of a bunched beam of multiply charged ions performed at the ESR (GSI) at a beam energy of GeV. Moderate bunching provided a force counteracting the decelerating laser force of one counterpropagating laser beam. This versatile type of laser cooling lead to longitudinally space-charge dominated beams with an unprecedented momentum spread of . Concerning the beam energy and charge state of the ion, the experiment depicts an important intermediate step from the established field of laser cooling of ion beams at low energies toward the unique laser cooling scheme proposed for relativistic beams of highly charged heavy ions at SIS 300 (FAIR). Funded by the German BMBF under contract number 06ML183.     

氩团簇高信噪比13—23nm软x射线辐射谱实验观察

用150fs的掺钛蓝宝石激光系统, 在功率密度约为5×10¹⁵ W/cm²时 激励氩(Ar)团簇，利用具有空间分辨能力的平场光栅谱仪观察到13—23nm波段Ar的软x射线谱，并观察到Ar的11阶离子谱线.在较宽的激光脉宽和较低的激光功率密度情况下，通过激励Ar团簇，获得 了Ar的高阶电离度的实验结果，且谱线的信噪比明显好于光场感应电离的情况，说明团簇的 形成大幅度地提高了激光能量的吸收效率. 关键词： Ar团簇 超短强激光 软x射线辐射     

Laser-driven electron beam and radiation sources for basic,medical and industrial sciences

To date active research on laser-driven plasma-based accelerators have achieved great progress on production of high-energy, high-quality electron and photon beams in a compact scale. Such laser plasma accelerators have been envisaged bringing a wide range of applications in basic, medical and industrial sciences. Here inheriting the groundbreaker’s review article on “Laser Acceleration and its future” [Toshiki Tajima, (2010)],¹⁾ we would like to review recent progress of producing such electron beams due to relativistic laser-plasma interactions followed by laser wakefield acceleration and lead to the scaling formulas that are useful to design laser plasma accelerators with controllability of beam energy and charge. Lastly specific examples of such laser-driven electron/photon beam sources are illustrated.