Ambient-Temperature Liquid Jet Targets For In Situ Monitoring and Tuning of Laser-Driven Ion Beam Parameters
Griffin Glenn, Stanford University
Laser-driven ion beams have attracted interest for a wide variety of applications including fundamental physics, cancer therapy, and materials science due to their high peak fluxes, directionality, and MeV-scale maximum energies. However, the low repetition rates available using conventional laser and target technologies have presented a significant challenge in realizing these applications. Ambient-temperature liquid jet targets recently developed at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory address many of the limitations of conventional targets and demonstrate robustness against high laser intensities in addition to target thicknesses and orientations that are tunable in situ.1 Using these targets, we have previously demonstrated the acceleration of multi-MeV deuteron beams at high repetition rate,2 providing an ion beam suitable for further advances in real-time monitoring and adjustment.
In a recent experiment at Colorado State University, we fielded ambient-temperature liquid H2O and D2O jet targets with micron-scale thicknesses and irradiated them using the ALEPH laser (400 nm, 45 fs, 5 J, 0.5 Hz). Here, we present the experimental platform that enabled us to monitor and tune ion beam parameters such as the energy spectrum, beam pointing, and divergence. These characteristics were measured in real time across about 2000 laser-plasma interaction experiments, yielding multi-MeV peak energies and ion beam opening half-angles of less than ten degrees. We also demonstrate in situ adjustment of the ion beam directionality using six-axis motorization of the liquid jet target. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of these results for subsequent applications of this platform in laser-driven neutron production and fusion materials science.
References:
1F. Treffert and G. D. Glenn et al., Phys. Plasmas 29, 123105 (2022)
2F. Treffert et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 121, 074104 (2022)
This work was supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences under FWP 100182. G. D. G. acknowledges support from the DOE NNSA SSGF program under DE-NA0003960.
Authors: G. D. Glenn1,2, F. Treffert1, C. B. Curry1, D. P. DePonte1, R. Hollinger3, G. Jain1,4, S. Popa5, J. J. Rocca3, B. Sullivan3, D. Ursescu5, S. Wang3, G. J. Williams6, S. Zahedpour3, S. H. Glenzer1, M. Gauthier1
1SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, USA
2Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, USA
3Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Colorado State University, USA
4Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, USA
5Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI-NP), Bucharest, Romania
6Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA
Abstract Author(s): (see above entries)