Analysis of laser-produced heavy ions for direct plasma injection scheme

Abstract

To accelerate highly charged intense ion beam, we have developed the direct plasma injection scheme (DPIS) with laser ion source. In this scheme an ion beam from a laser ion source is injected directly to a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) linac without a low energy beam transport (LEBT) line and then beam losses in the LEBT can be avoided. We achieved high current acceleration of carbon ions (60 mA) by DPIS with the RFQ specially designed for high current heavy ions. As the next step we will use heavier elements such as Al, Fe, and Ta as targets in laser ion source (using high power laser, for example, glass laser) for DPIS and will examine properties of laser-produced plasma for highly charged ion production. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.