Beam extraction from a laser-driven multicharged ion source (abstract)

Abstract

A newly proposed type of multicharged ion source has several potential advantages over existing types and a number of useful applications. The basic principle is that multiphoton absorption in an intense uniform laser focus can give multiple charge states of high purity (Ref. Reference 1). Thus, charge state separation downstream is simplified or made unnecessary. Another advantage is that large currents (hundreds of amperes) can be extracted. This type of source could be used for heavy-ion fusion drivers (see Ref. Reference 1) or storage rings. There are also industrial application such as materials processing. We describe conceptual design studies for several specific cases. For example, we discuss extraction and focusing of a 4.1 MV, 144 A beam of Xe16+ ions from an expanding plasma created by an intense laser. The maximum duration of the beam pulse is determined by the total charge in the plasma, while the practical pulse length is determined by the range of plasma radii over which good beam optics can be achieved. The initially diverging beam can be refocused to a small radius or made parallel by a combination of electrostatic and solenoid focusing. Our design studies are carried out first with an envelope code to determine the proper focusing parameters and then with a self-consistent particle code to optimize the beam quality. We present results from both codes and discuss several applications of this type of ion source.