CERN PS laser ion source development (original) (raw)

Status of the CO2 laser ion source at CERN

Review of Scientific Instruments, 2000

A laser ion source using a CO 2 laser focused onto a solid target is under study at CERN for the production of high currents of highly-charged heavy ions, for possible use in the pre-injector for LHC. A new expansion and extraction layout was installed in this test facility, improving the alignment and making the target to extraction distance more flexible. A two solenoid beam transport system was studied for providing the matching of the beam to an RFQ. An electrostatic beam transport using gridded electrostatic lenses was designed and constructed as an alternative to a magnetic system. Results show an increased overall current transmission for the electrostatic case. Investigation of the laser parameters required for the production of 1.4x10 10 Pb 25+ ions in a 5 µs pulse, has been performed using the TIR-1 laser facility at power densities up to 10 14 Wcm -2 for a focal spot size of 65 µm. The results of the latest scaling are presented.

Status of the CO[sub 2] laser ion source at CERN

Review of Scientific Instruments, 2000

A laser ion source using a CO 2 laser focused onto a solid target is under study at CERN for the production of high currents of highly-charged heavy ions, for possible use in the pre-injector for LHC. A new expansion and extraction layout was installed in this test facility, improving the alignment and making the target to extraction distance more flexible. A two solenoid beam transport system was studied for providing the matching of the beam to an RFQ. An electrostatic beam transport using gridded electrostatic lenses was designed and constructed as an alternative to a magnetic system. Results show an increased overall current transmission for the electrostatic case. Investigation of the laser parameters required for the production of 1.4x10 10 Pb 25+ ions in a 5 µs pulse, has been performed using the TIR-1 laser facility at power densities up to 10 14 Wcm -2 for a focal spot size of 65 µm. The results of the latest scaling are presented.

Developments at the CERN laser ion source

Review of Scientific Instruments, 1998

The high current, high charge-state ion beam which can be extracted from a laser produced plasma is well suited, after initial acceleration, for injection into synchrotrons. At CERN, the production of a heavy ion beam using a CO 2 laser ion source is studied. The latest results of experiments with a tantalum ion beam with charge states up to 23ϩ and accelerated by a radio frequency quadrupole from 6.9 to 100 keV/u, are presented along with simulations of the low energy beam transport. The ion yield at the desired charge state, the pulse to pulse stability of the ion beam, and the system reliability are all of major interest. Work is under way to replace the low repetition rate free-running laser oscillator by a master oscillator and power amplifier system. The master oscillator is operational and the first results of measurements of its beam quality and stability are presented.

New Developments of a Laser Ion Source for Ion Synchrotrons

Laser Ion Sources (LIS) are well suited to filling synchrotron rings with highly charged ions of almost any element in a single turn injection mode. We report the first measurements of the LIS output parameters for Pb 27+ ions generated by the new 100 J/1 Hz Master Oscillator – Power Amplifier CO 2 -laser system. A new LIS has been designed, built and tested at CERN, as an ion source for ITEP-TWAC accelerator/accumulator facility, and as a possible future source for an upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) injector chain. The use of the LIS based on 100 J/1 Hz CO 2 -laser together with the new ion LINAC, as injector for ITEP-TWAC project, is discussed.

Characteristics of Laser-Plasma Ion Source Based on a CO2-Laser for Heavy Ion Accelerators at ITEP

2018

The design of laser-plasma heavy ion source is described. This ions source is supposed to operate at I-3 and I-4 accelerators at ITEP. Characteristics of ion component of plasma produced by pulses of the CO2 laser were studied, when irradiating a solid carbon target at power density of 10¹¹-10¹² W/cm². Time-of-flight technique using a high-resolution electrostatic energy analyzer was applied to explore charge state and energy distribution as well as partial currents of carbon and tungsten ions. Some results of investigation of influence of cavern formation on charge state of generated ions are presented. This work is of considerable interest in a wide area of applications of accelerated particle beams, including fundamental studies of state of matter in particle colliders (NICA project at JINR), radiation damage simulation and hadron therapy for cancer treatment. The goal of this work is to investigate characteristics of ions in expanding laser plasma and find optimal conditions of ...

New development of laser ion source for highly charged ion beam production at Institute of Modern Physics (invited)

Review of Scientific Instruments, 2016

A laser ion source based on Nd:YAG laser has been being studied at the Institute of Modern Physics for the production of high intensity high charge state heavy ion beams in the past ten years, for possible applications both in a future accelerator complex and in heavy ion cancer therapy facilities. Based on the previous results for the production of multiple-charged ions from a wide range of heavy elements with a 3 J/8 ns Nd:YAG laser [Zhao et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 02B910 (2014)], higher laser energy and intensity in the focal spot are necessary for the production of highly charged ions from the elements heavier than aluminum. Therefore, the laser ion source was upgraded with a new Nd:YAG laser, the maximum energy of which is 8 J and the pulse duration can be adjusted from 8 to 18 ns. Since then, the charge state distributions of ions from various elements generated by the 8 J Nd:YAG laser were investigated for different experimental conditions, such as laser energy, pulse duration, power density in the focal spot, and incidence angle. It was shown that the incidence angle is one of the most important parameters for the production of highly charged ions. The capability of producing highly charged ions from the elements lighter than silver was demonstrated with the incidence angle of 10 • and laser power density of 8 × 10 13 W cm −2 in the focal spot, which makes a laser ion source complementary to the superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source for the future accelerator complex especially in terms of the ion beam production from some refractory elements. Nevertheless, great efforts with regard to the extraction of intense ion beams, modification of the ion beam pulse duration, and reliability of the ion source still need to be made for practical applications.

Development of laser driven proton sources and their applications

2007 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics - Pacific Rim, 2007

We are developing a proton accelerator using an intense lasers with a focused intensity of >1017 W/cm2. To monitor proton energy spectra as well as plasma parameters at each laser shot, we are using real time detectors. The proton energy of MeV is stably obtained for applications.

Performance of the ECR ion source of CERN's heavy ion injector

In fall 1994 the new heavy ion injector at CERN was brought into operation successfully and a lead beam of 2.9´107 ions per pulse was accelerated in the SPS up to an energy of 157 GeV/u. The ion source, which was supplied by GANIL (France) was in operation almost continuously over a period of about one year and proved to be very reliable. It pro-duces a current of more than 100 µA of Pb27+ (after the first spectrometer) during the afterglow of the pulsed discharge. The current stays within 5% of the maximum value for a time of about 1 ms, which is more than required by the accel-erators. Measurements of the charge state distribution, emittance and energy spread, which were made during this window, are presented together with other operating data.