Developments at the CERN laser ion source (original) (raw)

HIGH CHARGE-STATE ION BEAM PRODUCTION FROM A LASER ION SOURCE

2000

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 such a source is studied. A 60 mA pulse of a mixture of high charge state tantalum or lead ions of 5 μs duration

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.

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.

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.

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 ...

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.

CERN PS laser ion source development

Proceedings of the 1999 Particle Accelerator Conference (Cat. No.99CH36366), 1999

CERN, together with ITEP and TRINITI (Russia), is developing a CO 2 laser ion source. The key design parameters are: 1.4×10 10 ions of Pb 25+ in a pulse of 5.5 µs, with a 4-rms emittance of 0.2×10 -6 rad m, working at a repetition rate of 1 Hz. This device is considered as one candidate source for LHC heavy ion operation. The status of the laser development, the experimental set-up of the source consisting of the target area and its illumination, the plasma expansion area and extraction, beam transport and ion pre-acceleration by an RFQ, will be given.

Production of ion beams in high-power laser–plasma interactions and their applications

Laser and Particle Beams, 2004

Energetic ion beams are produced during the interaction of ultrahigh-intensity, short laser pulses with plasmas. These laser-produced ion beams have important applications ranging from the fast ignition of thermonuclear targets to proton imaging, deep proton lithography, medical physics, and injectors for conventional accelerators. Although the basic physical mechanisms of ion beam generation in the plasma produced by the laser pulse interaction with the target are common to all these applications, each application requires a specific optimization of the ion beam properties, that is, an appropriate choice of the target design and of the laser pulse intensity, shape, and duration.

Highly charged heavy ion generation by pulsed laser irradiation

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2003

At the Laboratorio Nazionale del Sud of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN-LNS) of Catania, different ion sources of multi-charged ions are available, including electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRIS) and a laser ion source, based on a high energy infra-red pulsed laser working in single shot or pulsed mode with repetition rate of 30 Hz. A hybrid ion source based on laser source (Nd:Yag pulsed laser at 10 10 W/cm 2 ) coupled to ECRIS is under construction to generate intense heavy ion beams at very high charge states. This source will use the ECR plasma to enhance the ion charge state from 5 þ -10 þ to about 30 þ -40 þ . The description of this equipment will be shown along with some results of the preliminary experiments. Additional studies were carried out at Prague Asterix Laser Source (PALS) by means of a iodine pulsed laser at 10 15 W/cm 2 , which produces a high density-high temperature plasma. The description of the ablation effects of metals and the study of the film deposition on different substrates will be presented. Preliminary investigations on heavy ions implantation will be also outlined.

New methods for high current fast ion beam production by laser-driven acceleration

Review of Scientific Instruments, 2012

An overview of the last experimental campaigns on laser-driven ion acceleration performed at the PALS facility in Prague is given. Both the 2 TW, sub-nanosecond iodine laser system and the 20 TW, femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser, recently installed at PALS, are used along our experiments performed in the intensity range 10 16 −10 19 W/cm 2 . The main goal of our studies was to generate high energy, high current ion streams at relatively low laser intensities. The discussed experimental investigations show promising results in terms of maximum ion energy and current density, which make the laser-accelerated ion beams a candidate for new-generation ion sources to be employed in medicine, nuclear physics, matter physics, and industry.