Commissioning of the laser-driven ion acceleration beamline at the Centre for Advanced Laser Applications

Jens Hartmann; Thomas F. Rösch; Felix Balling; Marc Berndl; Leonard Doyle; Lotta Flaig; Sonja Gerlach; Luisa Tischendorf; Jörg Schreiber

doi:10.1117/12.2592407

18 April 2021 Commissioning of the laser-driven ion acceleration beamline at the Centre for Advanced Laser Applications

Jens Hartmann, Thomas F. Rösch, Felix Balling, Marc Berndl, Leonard Doyle, Lotta Flaig, Sonja Gerlach, Luisa Tischendorf, Jörg Schreiber

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 11779, Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions VI; 117790N (2021) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2592407
Event: SPIE Optics + Optoelectronics, 2021, Online Only

Abstract

The Centre for Advanced Laser Applications (CALA) in Garching near Munich features the ATLAS 3000 laser system, which can deliver up to 3 PW within a pulse length of 20 fs. It is the driver for the Laser-driven ION (LION) beamline, which aims to accelerate protons and carbons for applications. The laser beam delivery comprises also a full aperture deformable mirror (DM) after the compressor. A 20 degrees off-axis parabolic mirror with a focal length of 1.5 m focusses the 28 cm diameter laser-beam down to a micrometere-sized spot, where a vacuum-compatible wave-front sensor is used for the DM feed-back loop focus optimization. The nano-Foil Target Positioning System (nFTPS) can replace targets with a repetition rate of up to 0.5 Hz and store up to 19 different target foils. A dipole magnet in a wide-angle spectrometer configuration deflects ions onto a CMOS detector for an online read-out. Commissioning started mid 2019 with regular proton acceleration using nm-thin plastic foils as targets. Since then proton cut-off energies above 20 MeV have been regularly achieved. The amount of light traveling backwards from the experiment into the laser is constantly monitored and 5 J on target have been determined as the current limit to prevent damage in the laser. Protons with a kinetic energy of 12 MeV are stably accelerated with the given laser parameters and are suitable for transport with permanent magnet quadrupoles towards our application platform. We have performed parameter scans varying target thicknesses and laser-pulse shape to optimize for highest and most stable proton numbers at 12 MeV kinetic energy, and investigated shot-to-shot particle number stability for the best parameters.

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Jens Hartmann, Thomas F. Rösch, Felix Balling, Marc Berndl, Leonard Doyle, Lotta Flaig, Sonja Gerlach, Luisa Tischendorf, and Jörg Schreiber "Commissioning of the laser-driven ion acceleration beamline at the Centre for Advanced Laser Applications", Proc. SPIE 11779, Laser Acceleration of Electrons, Protons, and Ions VI, 117790N (18 April 2021); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2592407

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