Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

HK: Fachverband Hadronen und Kerne

HK 31: Accelerators and Instrumentation II

HK 31.1: Group Report

Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 14:00–14:30, H-ZO 90

Research on laser induced particle acceleration — •Natascha Raab¹, Markus Büscher¹, Oswald Willi², Ralph Jung², and Michael Seltmann^1,3 — ¹Institut für Kernphysik (IKP) and Jülich Center for Hadron Physics (JCHP), Forschungszentrum Jülich — ²Institut für Laser-Plasma Physik (ILPP), Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf — ³FH Aachen

By directing a high-power, ultrashort laser pulse onto a thin foil, it is now possible to produce electron, proton and ion beams. However, for realizing reliable laser-driven accelerators one must still overcome fundamental and technological limitations. One current challenge is to continuously provide mass-limited targets into the laser focus in which its energy can be effectively converted into kinetic energy of the accelerated ions. IKP and ILPP have initiated a corresponding joint project based on a worldwide unique frozen pellet target that can provide a regular flux of frozen spheres of e.g. H2, N2, Ar and Xe, and the 100-TW laser system PULSAR at ILPP.

As a first step measurements are carried out with conventional gas and foil targets. These measurements include detector developement for fast particle detection and magnetic focusing of the particle beam as well as optical probing of the plasma itself, in order to better understand the ion-acceleration mechanisms.

The talk outlines the status of the research and the results of the first measurements.