High-quality Ion Beams Research Articles

Simulations of a cryogenic, buffer-gas filled Paul trap for low-emittance ion bunches

Many experiments with pulsed ion beams benefit from or even require ion bunches with both small temporal width as well as small energy spread. To achieve optimal ion-beam preparation, a buffer-gas filled cryogenic Paul trap is being developed in the context of the Multi Ion Reflection Apparatus for Collinear Laser Spectroscopy (MIRACLS). There, ion bunches of short-lived radionuclides are trapped in a Multi-Reflection Time-of-Flight (MR-ToF) device. Thus, the ions can be repeatedly probed by a laser beam compared to only once in conventional, single-passage collinear laser spectroscopy. To fulfill MIRACLS’ opposing requirements of a small temporal ion-bunch width and small energy spread, a buffer-gas filled cryogenic Paul trap is envisioned. Ion-optical simulations confirm the advantages of cryogenic temperatures and the linear scaling of the beam emittance as a function of the buffer-gas temperature. Beyond MIRACLS, high-quality ion beams from a cryogenic Paul trap will be beneficial for other precision experiments at radioactive ion beam facilities.

Quasi-monoenergetic heavy ion acceleration driven by sub-100 PW linearly polarized laser pulses in the radiation-dominated QED regime

Heavy ion acceleration from an ultrathin foil target irradiated by a p-polarized and spatially Gaussian laser pulse at intensity of 1023 W/cm2 is studied by using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. We find that, in the extremely intense laser fields, the radiation reaction force from bright γ-rays radiated by radially oscillating electrons is large enough to match the Coulomb explosive force of foil electrons. The undesirable transverse expansion of the foil from the electron heating and inhomogeneous radial profile of the laser intensity is effectively suppressed. The foil maintains relatively good opacity in its central region stabilizing localized acceleration of heavy ions. With a laser of intensity 3.4 × 1023 W/cm2, duration of 33 fs, and power of 96 PW, a dense monoenergetic Au79+ ion bunch with a peak energy of ∼160 GeV can be obtained in the radiation-dominated QED regime. Such a high-quality heavy ion beam is useful for investigating nuclear matter equation of state and quantum chromodynamic phase transition in intermediate-energy heavy ion collisions.

Review of Gas Dynamic RF-Only Funnel Technique for Low-Energy and High-Quality Ion Beam Extraction into a Vacuum.

This paper reviews the development and present status of a novel gas dynamic RF-only funnel technique for low-energy ion beam extraction into vacuum. This simple and original technique allows for the production of high-quality continuous and pulsed ion beams in a wide range of masses, which have a very small transverse and longitudinal emittance.

A compact radio-frequency ion source for high brightness and low energy spread negative oxygen ion beam production.

A high brightness and low energy spread (∆E) ion source is essential to the production of a high-quality primary ion beam applied in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). A compact 13.56MHz radio-frequency (RF) ion source with an external planar spiral antenna has been developed as a candidate ion source for the production of negative oxygen ion beams for SIMS application. This ion source is designed with a three-and-a-half-turn water-cooled planar antenna for RF power coupling, a multi-cusp magnetic field for effective plasma confinement, and a three-electrode extraction system. The experimental results show that more than 50 µA negative oxygen ion beams have been extracted, which consist of 56% O-, 25% O2-, and 19% O3-. The ion energy distribution of the negative oxygen ion beam exhibits a Gaussian distribution with a minimum ∆E of 6.3eV. The brightness of the O- beam is estimated to be 82.4Am-2 Sr-1V-1. The simulation, design, and experimental study results of this RF ion source will be presented in this paper.

Efficient ion acceleration driven by a Laguerre–Gaussian laser in near-critical-density plasma

Laser-driven ion accelerators have the advantages of compact size, high density, and short bunch duration over conventional accelerators. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to generate ion beams with quasi-monoenergetic peak and low divergence in experiments with the current ultrahigh intensity laser and thin target technologies. Here we propose a scheme that a Laguerre–Gaussian laser irradiates a near-critical-density (NCD) plasma to generate a quasi-monoenergetic and low-divergence proton beam. The Laguerre–Gaussian laser pulse in an NCD plasma excites a moving longitudinal electrostatic field with a large amplitude, and it maintains the inward bowl-shape for dozens of laser durations. This special distribution of the longitudinal electrostatic field can simultaneously accelerate and converge the protons. Our particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation shows that the efficient proton acceleration can be realized with the Laguerre–Gaussian laser intensity ranging from 3.9 × 1021 W⋅cm−2–1.6 × 1022 W⋅cm−2 available in the near future, e.g., a quasi-monoenergetic proton beam with peak energy ∼ 115 MeV and divergence angles less than 5° can be generated by a 5.3 × 1021 W⋅cm−2 pulse. This work could provide a reference for the high-quality ion beam generation with PWclass laser systems available recently.

High-Quality Laser-Accelerated Ion Beams from Structured Targets

In this work, we reviewed our results on the prospect of increasing the quality of ion acceleration driven by high-intensity laser pulses using low-Z structured targets. It is shown that the radiation pressure acceleration mechanism dominates over target normal sheath acceleration for assumed laser target parameters when the laser intensity is high enough. The target thickness is optimized for this regime and double-layer structure is investigated. When a corrugation is fabricated on the interface of such a target, a relativistic instability with Rayleigh–Taylor and Richtmyer–Meshkov like features can be driven by the target interaction with a high intensity laser pulse. The proper development of this instability leads to the generation of a collimated quasi-monoenergetic ion beam with lower emittance, divergence, and energy spread compared to a single and double-layer target with planar interface. A steep-front laser pulse is used in our simulations to mitigate other type of instabilities arising at the target surface from the laser–target interaction. We discuss the use of a plasma shutter to generate the required pulse profile, which also locally increases intensity. The obtained shape improves the ion acceleration, including higher maximal energy and lower beam divergence, in our simulation of a high-Z target.

On the control of electron heating for optimal laser radiation pressure ion acceleration

We study the onset of electron heating in intense laser–solid interactions and its impact on the spectral quality of radiation pressure accelerated ions in both hole boring and light sail regimes. Two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are performed over a wide range of laser and target parameters and reveal how the pulse duration, profile, polarization and target surface stability control the electron heating, the dominant ion acceleration mechanisms and the ion spectra. We find that the onset of strong electron heating is associated with the growth of the Rayleigh–Taylor-like instability at the front surface and must be controlled to produce high-quality ion beams, even when circularly polarized lasers are employed. We define a threshold condition for the maximum duration of the laser pulse that allows mitigation of electron heating and radiation pressure acceleration of narrow energy spread ion beams. The model is validated by three-dimensional PIC simulations, and the few experimental studies that reported low energy spread radiation pressure accelerated ion beams appear to meet the derived criteria. The understanding provided by our work will be important in guiding future experimental developments, for example for the ultrashort laser pulses becoming available at state-of-the-art laser facilities, for which we predict that proton beams with $\sim$ 150–250 MeV, $\sim$ 30% energy spread, and a total laser-to-proton conversion efficiency of $\sim$ 20% can be produced.

Radiation pressure acceleration of high-quality ion beams using ultrashort laser pulses

The generation of compact, high-energy ion beams is one of the most promising applications of intense laser-matter interactions, but the control of the beam spectral quality remains an outstanding challenge. We show that in radiation pressure acceleration of a thin solid target the onset of electron heating is determined by the growth of the Rayleigh-Taylor-like instability at the front surface and must be controlled to produce ion beams with high spectral quality in the light sail regime. The growth rate of the instability imposes an upper limit on the laser pulse duration and intensity to achieve high spectral beam quality and we demonstrate that under this optimal regime, the maximum peak ion beam energy per nucleon is independent of target density, composition, and laser energy (transverse spot size). Our predictions are validated by two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, which indicate that for recent and upcoming experimental facilities using ultrashort ($\lesssim 25$ fs) laser pulses it is possible to produce $100 - 300$ MeV proton beams with $\sim 30\%$ energy spread and high laser-to-proton energy conversion efficiency.

Topological control of laser-driven acceleration structure for producing extremely bright ion beams

We propose to use intense optical vortex to control laser-based ion acceleration for obtaining high-quality ion beams. An acceleration field favorable for generating well-collimated energetic proton beams results from the interaction of a tailored vortex laser pulse with thin solid-density foil in a blowout regime. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that the foil protons can be efficiently accelerated to the GeV level in the form of a beam with small radius (<1 μm), narrow divergence (<0.1 rad), and low emittance (∼0.004π mm mrad). The proton beam is of high energy density (>1018 J m−3) and high brightness (>1022 A m−2 rad−2), exceeding that of the Gaussian laser case by four orders of magnitude, and the energy conversion efficiency is about 12 times that under the same laser intensity. The scheme can also be used to accelerate heavier, such as carbon, ions. The resulting ion beams should be useful as compact neutron source, for creation of warm dense matters, as well as ion-beam direct and indirect drive inertial confinement fusion, ultrafast diagnostics of the implosion dynamics in the latter, etc.

High current ion beam formation with strongly inhomogeneous electrostatic field

A new approach to the development of extraction systems capable of forming ion beams with previously inaccessible intensity is proposed. The use of inhomogeneous accelerating field allows to improve the ion beam formation efficiency significantly. The increase of electric field magnitude is achieved by changing the shape of the electrodes only, without increasing the accelerating voltage and decreasing the interelectrode distance. The comparison is made between a new extraction system and a flat traditional one, which is the most common. The use of a new electrode geometry allows to increase the lifetime of the electrodes in sources of intense beams operating in a continuous wave mode. For electron cyclotron resonance ion sources, results demonstrate the possibility to form high-quality ion beams with a current density of more than 1A cm−2.

Towards a He-buffered laser ablation ion source for collinear laser spectroscopy

Laser ablation opens a material-independent method to produce ions from transition metals for laser spectroscopy. To overcome some drawbacks of this process, an ion source is under development at TU Darmstadt. A distinctive feature of this source is that ions are produced via laser ablation in presence of helium buffer gas where they stop and cool in the process of their collisions with the buffer gas atoms and are then extracted by the gas flow into low-pressure conditions through the supersonic nozzle. The compact RF-only funnel ion guide placed on the axis behind the nozzle exit allows for effective extraction of high-quality ion beams into a pressure region below 10− 4 mbar. The extraction is realized by using the gas flow trough a supersonic nozzle and an RF-only funnel ion guide, followed by a second nozzle and an RF+DC funnel representing two differential pumping stages. The technical details of this laser ablation ion source are described and the results of the first tests with the RF-only funnel are presented.

Investigation of Light-sail and Hole-boring Radiation Pressure Accelerations upon the Interaction of Ultra-intense Laser Pulses with Thin Targets

The radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) scheme with a circularly polarized laser pulse is well-known to provide an efficient generation of intense, energetic quasi-monochromatic ion beams. Depending on the thickness of targets, the RPA appears in two distinct modes: the light-sail (LS) RPA, which develops in ultrathin targets, and the hole-boring (HB) RPA, which develops in relatively thick targets. In this work, we investigated the ion acceleration dynamics of the LS-RPA and the HB-RPA through a fully relativistic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. The transition and competition between LS- and HB-RPA modes are investigated with suitable explanations of a one-dimensional (1D) theoretical model. To check the validity of the 1D results and investigate the multi-dimensional effects, two-dimensional simulations are also carried out. The present work may provide a deeper understanding of RPA and useful guidelines for generating high-quality and high-fluence ion beams.

Electrostatic capacitance-type acceleration of ions with an intense few-cycle laser pulse

We use large scale, three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to demonstrate that a high-quality energetic ion beam can be stably generated by irradiation of a multi-species nanofoil target with an intense few-cycle laser pulse. In this scheme named “electrostatic capacitance-type acceleration,” the light ions of the nanofoil are accelerated by a uniform capacitor-like electrostatic field induced by the laser-blown-out electrons that act like the cathode of a capacitor, while the heavy ions left behind serve as the anode. This scheme overcomes the inherent obstacles existing in the other acceleration mechanisms, such as uncontrollability of target normal sheath acceleration and instability of radiation pressure acceleration. Theoretical studies and three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that this acceleration scheme is much more stable and efficient than the previous ones, by which 100 MeV monoenergetic proton beams (energy spread &amp;lt;10%) can be obtained with a laser energy less than 10 J, and the giga electron volt ones with about 100 J.

Effect of polarity on beam and plasma target formation in a dense plasma focus

Dense plasma focus (DPF) devices are conventionally operated with a polarity such that the inner electrode (IE) is the anode. It has been found that interchanging the polarity of the electrodes (i.e., IE as the cathode) can cause an order of magnitude decrease in the neutron yield. This polarity riddle has previously been studied empirically through several experiments and is yet not well understood. We have performed kinetic simulations using the particle-in-cell modeling to investigate the problem. This is the first time that both polarities have been studied with simulations in great detail. In our simulations, we have modeled the entire beam and plasma target formation processes, but we did not consider differences in break-down conditions caused by the two polarities. We have found that when using reverse polarity ions are still accelerated and, in fact, attain similar energy spectra as in the standard polarity case. The difference is that the fields are flipped and thus ions are accelerated in the opposite direction. So, in the reverse polarity case, the majority of the “plasma target” (formed by the imploding plasma) is in the opposite direction of the beam, and thus, the beam hits the IE and produces few neutrons. With a better inner electrode configuration, reverse polarity is able to create a high-quality ion beam as well as a high-density target. Both can be comparable to that generated by standard polarity. Furthermore, we will show that it is easier to add an additional solid catcher target to a DPF device with reverse polarity, potentially enabling it to generate more neutrons than standard polarity.

Phase locked multiple rings in the radiation pressure ion acceleration process

Laser contrast plays a crucial role for obtaining high quality ion beams in the radiation pressure ion acceleration (RPA) process. Through one- and two-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we show that a plasma with a bi-peak density profile can be produced from a thin foil on the effects of a picosecond prepulse, and it can then lead to distinctive modulations in the ion phase space (phase locked double rings) when the main pulse interacts with the target. These fascinating ion dynamics are mainly due to the trapping effect from the ponderomotive potential well of a formed moving standing wave (i.e. the interference between the incoming pulse and the pulse reflected by a slowly moving surface) at nodes, quite different from the standard RPA process. A theoretical model is derived to explain the underlying mechanism, and good agreements have been achieved with PIC simulations.

High quality ion acceleration through the interaction of two matched counterpropagating transversely polarized Gaussian lasers with a flat foil target

In order to generate high quality ion beams through a relatively uniform radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) of a common flat foil, a new scheme is proposed to overcome the curve of the target while being radiated by a single transversely Gaussian laser. In this scheme, two matched counterpropagating transversely Gaussian laser pulses, a main pulse and an auxiliary pulse, impinge on the foil target at the meantime. It is found that in the two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation, by the restraint of the auxiliary laser, the curve of the foil can be effectively suppressed. As a result, a high quality monoenergetic ion beam is generated through an efficient RPA of the foil target. For example, two counterpropagating transversely circularly polarized Gaussian lasers with normalized amplitudes ${a}_{1}=120$ and ${a}_{2}=30$, respectively, impinge on the foil target at the meantime, a 1.3 GeV monoenergetic proton beam with high collimation is obtained finally. Furthermore, the effects on the ions acceleration with different parameters of the auxiliary laser are also investigated.

Study of the laser-plasma acceleration of ion beams with enhanced quality: The effects of nanostructured targets

Production of high-quality ion beams by intense laser–plasma interactions represents a rapidly evolving field of interest. In this paper, a nanostructured target is proposed to generate laser-driven quasi-monoenergetic ion beams with considerably reduced energy spread and enhanced peak energy. Linearly polarized, 40-fs laser pulses of intensity 8.5 × 1020 W cm−2 were considered to irradiate simple carbon foil and nanostructured targets. The proposed target consists of a thin layer of relatively high-Z atom (Ti) with a depression on its back surface which is filled by a nanosize disc of a low-Z atom (C). Reliable and reproducible results of multi-parametric Particle-in-Cell simulations show that by using a composed nanostructured target with optimum physical properties, a quasi-monoenergetic ion beam can be generated with a narrow band energy spectrum peaking at energies higher than 20 MeV. In addition, the forward-accelerated beam of low-Z carbon ions exhibits a considerably reduced transverse emittance in comparison with the ion beam obtained in the condition of a simple foil. The proposed nanostructured target can efficiently contribute to the generation of high-quality ion beams which are critical in newly growing applications and physics of laser-plasma accelerators.

Generation of high quality ion beams through the stable radiation pressure acceleration of the near critical density target**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11365020, 11475026, 11565022, and 11547304), the Science and Technology Program of Gansu Province of China (Grant No. 1606RJZA090), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Higher Education Institutions of Gansu Province of

In order to generate high quality ion beams through the stable radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) of the near critical density (NCD) target, we propose a new type of target where an ultra-thin high density (HD) layer is attached to the front surface of an NCD target, which has a preferable self-supporting property in the RPA experiments than the ultra-thin foil target. It is found that in one-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation, by the block of the HD layer in the new target, there emerges the hole-boring process rather than propagation in the NCD layer when the intense laser pulse impinges on this target. As a result, a typical RPA structure that the compressed electron layer overlaps the ion layer as a whole is formed and a high quality ion beam is obtained, e.g., a circularly polarized laser pulse with normalized amplitude impinges on this new target and a 1.2 GeV monoenergetic ion beam is generated through the RPA of the NCD layer. Similar results are also found in the two-dimensional PIC simulation.

Physical Mechanism of the Transverse Instability in Radiation Pressure Ion Acceleration.

The transverse stability of the target is crucial for obtaining high quality ion beams using the laser radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) mechanism. In this Letter, a theoretical model and supporting two-dimensional (2D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations are presented to clarify the physical mechanism of the transverse instability observed in the RPA process. It is shown that the density ripples of the target foil are mainly induced by the coupling between the transverse oscillating electrons and the quasistatic ions, a mechanism similar to the oscillating two stream instability in the inertial confinement fusion research. The predictions of the mode structure and the growth rates from the theory agree well with the results obtained from the PIC simulations in various regimes, indicating the model contains the essence of the underlying physics of the transverse breakup of the target.

Generation of quasi-monoenergetic heavy ion beams via staged shock wave acceleration driven by intense laser pulses in near-critical plasmas

Laser-driven ion acceleration potentially offers a compact, cost-effective alternative to conventional accelerators for scientific, technological, and health-care applications. A novel scheme for heavy ion acceleration in near-critical plasmas via staged shock waves driven by intense laser pulses is proposed, where, in front of the heavy ion target, a light ion layer is used for launching a high-speed electrostatic shock wave. This shock is enhanced at the interface before it is transmitted into the heavy ion plasmas. Monoenergetic heavy ion beam with much higher energy can be generated by the transmitted shock, comparing to the shock wave acceleration in pure heavy ion target. Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that quasi-monoenergetic ion beams with peak energy 168 MeV and considerable particle number are obtained by laser pulses at intensity of in such staged shock wave acceleration scheme. Similarly a high-quality ion beam with a well-defined peak with energy 250 MeV and spread can also be obtained in this scheme.