A spark discharge is coupled to a laser multicharged ion source to enhance ion generation. The laser plasma triggers a spark discharge with electrodes located in front of the ablated target. For an aluminum target, the spark discharge results in significant enhancement in the generation of multicharged ions along with higher charge states than observed with the laser source alone. When a Nd:YAG...

This paper reviews the many recent advances at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) at the University of Michigan in multi-MeV ion beam generation from the interaction of short laser pulses focused onto thin foil targets at intensities ranging from 1017 to 1019 W/cm2. Ion beam characteristics were studied by changing the laser intensity, laser wavelength, target material, and by depo...

Experiments, which use a combination of the PHELIX laser kJ-option and the heavy ion beam of 4-10 MeV/u energy delivered by the UNILACaccelerator, are aimed at investigation of the heavy ion energy loss in ionized matter. In these experiments a large scale (~1mm) long living (~5ns) high density plasma target with homogeneously distributed plasma density, temperature and ionization degree is req...

A laser-driven, multi-MeV-range ion beamline has been installed at the GSI Helmholtz center for heavy ion research. The high-power laser PHELIX drives the very short (picosecond) ion acceleration on μm scale, with energies ranging up to 28.4 MeV for protons in a continuous spectrum. The necessary beam shaping behind the source is accomplished by applying magnetic ion lenses like solenoids and q...

The emission characteristics of debris from laser-produced tin plasma were investigated for an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) light source. The ions and droplets emitted from tin plasma produced by a CO2 laser or an Nd: YAG laser were detected with Faraday cups and quartz crystal micro-balance (QCM) detectors, respectively. A higher ion kinetic energy and a lower droplet emission were ob...

Changes in the laser induced molecular dissociation of 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCE) were studied using a range of intensities and standard laser wavelengths with nanosecond and femtosecond pulse durations. TCE contains C-H, C-C and C-Cl bonds and selective bond breakage of one or more of these bonds is of scientific interest. Using laser ionization time of flight mass spectrometry, it was found ...

Experiments are reported in which two configurations for ablation-plasma-ion-implantation ~APII! are characterized by diagnostics and compared. The first configuration oriented the target parallel to the deposition substrate. This orientation yielded ion-beam-assisted deposition of thin films. A delay (.5 ms) between laser and high voltage was necessary for this geometry to avoid arcing between...

Radiation pressure acceleration is a highly efficient mechanism of laser-driven ion acceleration, with the laser energy almost totally transferrable to the ions in the relativistic regime. There is a fundamental limit on the maximum attainable ion energy, which is determined by the group velocity of the laser. In the case of tightly focused laser pulses, which are utilized to get the highest in...

We studied proton beam production from a laser ion source using hydrogen rich target materials. In general, gas based species are not suitable for laser ion sources since formation of a dense laser target is difficult. In order to achieve reliable operation, we tested hydride targets using a sub nanosecond Q-switched Nd-YAG laser, which may help suppress target material consumption. We detected...

We present recent results of our experiments on laser cooling of fast stored ion beams at the Heidelberg Test Storage Ring. The longitudinal motion of the ions is directly cooled by the light pressure force, whereas eecient transverse cooling is obtained indirectly by longitudinal-transverse coupling mechanisms. Laser cooling in novel bunch forms consisting of square-well buckets leads to longi...