Generating monoenergetic heavy-ion bunches with laser-induced electrostatic shocks

A method for efficient laser acceleration of heavy ions by electrostatic shock is investigated using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation and analytical modeling. When a small number of heavy ions are mixed with light ions, the heavy ions can be accelerated to the same velocity as the light ions so that they gain much higher energy because of their large mass. Accordingly, a sandwich target design with a thin compound ion layer between two light-ion layers and a micro-structured target design are proposed for obtaining monoenergetic heavy-ion beams.

Ion acceleration with mixed solid targets interacting with circularly polarized lasers

The interaction of a circularly polarized laser pulse with a mixed solid target containing two species of ions is studied by particle in cell simulations and analytical model. After the interaction tends to be stable, it is demonstrated that the acceleration is more efficient for the heavier ions than that in plasmas containing a single kind of heavy ion and the acceleration efficiency is higher when its proportion is lower. To obtain monoenergetic heavy-ion beams, a sandwich target with a thin mixed ion layer between two light ion layers and a microstructured target are proposed. The influences of parameters of the laser pulse and target on ion acceleration are discussed in detail. It is found that, when the target is thick enough, a cold target is more appropriate for heavy-ion acceleration than a warm target, and the velocity of the reflected heavy ions is proportional to the laser amplitude.

High energy heavy ion induced enhanced adhesion

The work described in this thesis represents an attempt to summarize to date the information collected on the process of high energy heavy ion induced enhanced adhesion. Briefly, the process involves the irradiation of materials covered by thin (≾3μm) films with high energy (E > 200 keV I nucleon) heavy ion beams (such as Fluorine or Chlorine). Enhanced adhesion has been observed on all material combinations tested, including metal on metal, metal on semiconductor, metal on dielectric and dielectric on dielectric systems. In some cases, the enhancement can be quite large, so that a film that could be wiped off a substrate quite easily before irradiation can withstand determined scrubbing afterwards.

Very little is understood yet about this adhesion mechanism, so what is presented are primarily observations about systems studied, and descriptions of the actual preparation and irradiation of samples used. Some discussion is presented about mechanisms that have been considered but rejected.

High-resolution γ-ray spectroscopy: A versatile tool for nuclear β-decay studies at TRIUMF-ISAC

High-resolution γ-ray spectroscopy is essential to fully exploit the unique, high-quality beams available at the next generation of radioactive ion beam facilities such as the TRIUMF isotope separator and accelerator (ISAC). The 8π spectrometer, which consists of 20 Compton-suppressed HPGe detectors, has recently been reconfigured for a vigorous research programme in weak interaction and nuclear structure physics. With the addition of a variety of ancillary detectors it has become the world's most powerful device dedicated to β-decay studies. This paper provides a brief overview of the apparatus and highlights from recent experiments. © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Violet/blue emission from hydrogenated amorphous carbon films deposited from energetic CH3+ ions and ion bombardment

Considering the complexity of the general plasma techniques, pure single CH3+ ion beams were selected for the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous (a) carbon films with various ion energies and temperatures. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been performed on the films and violet/blue emission has been observed. The violet/blue emission is attributed to the small size distribution of sp(2) clusters and is related to the intrinsic properties of CH3 terminals, which lead to a very high barrier for the photoexcited electrons. Ion bombardment plays an important role in the PL behavior. This would provide further insight into the growth dynamics of a-C:H films. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATIONS OF A DUAL MASS-SELECTED LOW-ENERGY ION-BEAM SYSTEM

A direct ion beam deposition system designed for heteroepitaxy at a low substrate temperature and for the growth of metastable compounds has been constructed and tested. The system consists of two mass-resolved low-energy ion beams which merge at the target with an incident energy range 50-25 000 eV. Each ion beam uses a Freeman ion source for ion production and a magnetic sector for mass filtering. While a magnetic quadrupole lens is used in one beam for ion optics, an electrostatic quadrupole lens focuses the other beam. Both focusing approaches provide a current density more than 100-mu-A/cm2, although the magnetic quadrupole gives a better performance for ion energies below 200 eV. The typical current of each beam reaches more than 0.3 mA at 100 eV, with a ribbon beam of about 0.3-0.5 x 2 cm2. The target is housed in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber with a base pressure of 1 x 10(-7) Pa and a typical pressure of 5 x 10(-6) Pa when a noncondensable beam like argon is brought into the chamber. During deposition, the target can be heated to 800-degrees-C and scanned mechanically with an electronic scanning control unit. The dual beam system has been used to grow GaN using a Ga+ and a N+ beam, and to study the oxygen and hydrogen ion beam bombardment effects during carbon ion beam deposition. The results showed that the simultaneous arrival of two beams at the target is particularly useful in compound formation and in elucidation of growth mechanisms.

An outlook of heavy ion driven plasma research at IMP-Lanzhou

Since the successful completion of the cooling storage ring (CSR) project in China at the end of 2007, high qualitative heavy ion beams with energy ranging from keV to GeV/u have been available at the Heavy Ion Research Facility at Lanzhou (HIRFL). More than 1091 GeV/u C6+particles or 108235 MeV/u Xe particles can be stored in the CSR main-ring and extracted within hundred nano-seconds during the test running,the beam parameters will be improved in the coming years so that high energy density (HED) conditions could be achieved and investigated there. Recent scientific results from the experiments relevant to plasma research on HIRFL are summarized. Dense plasma research with intense heavy ion beams of CSR is proposed here.

An outlook of heavy ion driven plasma research at IMP-Lanzhou

Since the successful completion of the cooling storage ring (CSR) project in China at the end of 2007, high qualitative heavy ion beams with energy ranging from keV to GeV/u have been available at the Heavy Ion Research Facility at Lanzhou (HIRFL). More than 10(9) 1 GeVlu C6+ particles or 10(8) 235 MeV/u Xe particles can be stored in the CSR main-ring and extracted within hundred nano-seconds during the test running, the beam parameters will be improved in the coming years so that high energy density (HED) conditions could be achieved and investigated there. Recent scientific results from the experiments relevant to plasma research on HIRFL are summarized. Dense plasma research with intense heavy ion beams of CSR is proposed here.

An introduction to the trapping of clusters with ion traps and electrostatic storage devices

This paper presents an introduction to the application of ion traps and storage devices for cluster physics. Some experiments involving cluster ions in trapping devices such as Penning traps, Paul traps, quadrupole or multipole linear traps are briefly discussed. Electrostatic ion storage rings and traps which allow for the storage of fast ion beams without mass limitation are presented as well. We also report on the recently developed mini-ring, a compact electrostatic ion storage ring for cluster, molecular and biomolecular ion studies.

Experiments and modification on electron cyclotron resonance ion sources at the Institute of Modern Physics

Uranium ion beams were produced from electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources by sputtering method this year at the Institute of Modern Physics. At first, we chose the Lanzhou ECR No. 3 ion source to implement the production experiment of U ion beams. Finally, 11 e mu A of U28+, 5 e mu A of U32+, and 1.5 e mu A of U35+ were obtained. A U26+ ion beam produced by the LECR2 ion source was accelerated successfully by the cyclotron. This means that the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL) has accomplished the acceleration of the ion beam of the heaviest element according to the designed parameters. The Lanzhou ECR ion source No. 2 (LECR2), which was built in 1997, has served the HIRFL for eight years and needed to be upgraded to provide more intense high charge state ion beams for HIRFL cooling storage ring. We started the upgrading project of LECR2 last year, and the modified design just has been finished. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Development of external electron-beam enhancement of the Penning ionization gauge ion source

To study the injection of additional electrons from an external electron gun into the plasma of a Penning ionization gauge (PIG) ion source, a test bench for the external electron-beam enhancement of the PIG (E-PIG) ion source was set up. A source magnet assembly was built to satisfy the request for magnetic field configuration of the E-PIG ion source. Numerical calculations have been done to optimize the magnetic field configuration so as to fit the primary electrons to be fed into the PIG discharge chamber along the spreading magnetic field lines. Many possible methods for improving the performance and stability of the PIG ion source have been used in the E-PIG ion source, including the use of multicrystal LaB6 cathode and optimized axial magnetic field. This article presents a detailed design of the E-PIG ion source. Substantial enhancement of ion charge state is expected to be observed which demonstrates that the E-PIG is a viable alternative to other much more costly and difficult to operate devices for the production of intense ion beams of higher charge state.

Outline of the progress in the study of radioactive nuclear physics and super-heavy nuclei

We briefly introduce the current status and progress in the field of radioactive ion beam physics and the study of super-heavy nuclei. Some important problems and research directions are outlined, such as the sub-barrier fusion reaction, the direct reaction at Fermi energy and high energies, the property of nuclei at drip-lines, new magic numbers and new collective motion modes for unstable nuclei and the synthesis and study of the super-heavy nuclei.

Heavy-ion conformal irradiation in the shallow-seated tumor therapy terminal at HIRFL

Basic research related to heavy-ion cancer therapy has been done at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences since 1995. Now a plan of clinical trial with heavy ions has been launched at IMP. First, superficially placed tumor treatment with heavy ions is expected in the therapy terminal at the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL), where carbon ion beams with energy up to 100 MeV/u can be supplied. The shallow-seated tumor therapy terminal at HIRFL is equipped with a passive beam delivery system including two orthogonal dipole magnets, which continuously scan pencil beams laterally and generate a broad and uniform irradiation field, a motor-driven energy degrader and a multi-leaf collimator. Two different types of range modulator, ripple filter and ridge filter with which Guassian-shaped physical dose and uniform biological effective dose Bragg peaks can be shaped for therapeutic ion beams respectively, have been designed and manufactured. Therefore, two-dimensional and three-dimensional conformal irradiations to tumors can be performed with the passive beam delivery system at the earlier therapy terminal. Both the conformal irradiation methods have been verified experimentally and carbon-ion conformal irradiations to patients with superficially placed tumors have been carried out at HIRFL since November 2006.

A high charge state all-permanent magnet ECR ion source for the IMP 320 kV HV platform

A 320 kV high voltage (HV) platform has been constructed at Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) to satisfy the increasing requirements of experimental studies in some heavy ion associated directions. A high charge state all-permanent magnet ECRIS-LAPECR2 has been designed and fabricated to provide intense multiple charge state ion beams (such as 1000 e mu A O6+, 16.7 e mu A Ar14+, 24 e mu A Xe27+, etc.) for the HV platform. LAPECR2 has a dimension of 0 650 mm x 560 mm. The powerful 3D magnetic confinement to the ECR plasma and the optimum designed magnetic field for the operation at 14.5 GHz makes it possible to obtain very good performances from this source. After a brief introduction of the ECRIS and accelerator development at IMP, the conceptual design of LAPECR2 source is presented. The first test results of this all-permanent magnet ECRIS are given in this paper.

Research on metallic ion beam production at IMP

Since 1998, many experiments for metallic ion production have been done on LECR2 (Lanzhou ECR ion source NO.2), LECR3 (Lanzhou ECR ion source NO.3) and SECRAL (Superconductiong ECR ion source Advanced design in Lanzhou) at Institute of Modern Physics. The very heavy metallic ion beams such as those of uranium were also produced by the plasma sputtering method, and supplied for HIRFL (Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou) accelerators successfully. During the test, 11.5e mu AU(28+), 9e mu AU(24+) were obtained. Some ion beams of the metal having lower melting temperature such as Ni and Mg ion beams were produced by oven method on LECR3 too. The consumption rate was controlled to be lower for Mg-26 ion beams production, and the minimum consumption was about 0.3mg per hour. In this paper, the main experimental results are given. Some discussions are made for some experimental phenomena and results, and some conclusions are drawn.