Active steering of laser-accelerated ion beams

Summary, in English

A technique for optical control of the spatial distribution of laser-accelerated ion beams is presented. An ultra-short laser pulse, tightly focused to relativistic intensities on a thin foil target, drives a beam of MeV ions. An auxiliary, nanosecond laser pulse drives a shock and locally deforms the initially flat target prior to the main pulse interaction. By changing the properties of the shock-driving laser pulse, the normal direction of the ion emitting surface is locally manipulated and the emission direction is thereby controlled. In the future, this method could be used to achieve dynamic control of the ion beam divergence.

• Author: Olle Lundh; Yannick Glinec; Christian Homann; Filip Lindau; Anders Persson; Claes-Göran Wahlström; DC Carroll; P Mckenna
• Department/s: Atomic Physics
• Publishing year: 2008
• Language: English
• Publication/Series: Applied Physics Letters
• Volume: 92
• Issue: 1
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2832765
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• Topic: Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0003-6951