Abstract: |
This thesis reports on a test beamline which combines laser-driven ion sources with conventional accelerator elements realized at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH.
The Petawatt High-Energy Laser for Heavy Ion EXperiments (PHELIX) drove a Target Normal Sheath Acceleration (TNSA) source which delivered an exponentially decaying proton spectrum up to ≈ 21.5 MeV. In the next step, the generated proton beam is collimated by a pulsed high-field solenoid, which selected a specific energy range. Through this setting, the central energy was defined, which was transported through the
whole beamline. In this thesis, the aim was a central energy value of E0 = 8 MeV and
solenoid magnetic field strength of 6.5 T. Proton numbers of the order of 10^9 were measured in an energy interval of (8.5 ± 0.25) MeV.
Afterwards, the collimated proton bunch entered a radiofrequency (rf) cavity operated at 108.4 MHz. Inside this element, the particle bunch was compressed in longitudinal phase space around its central energy by a certain angle. At an rf power of 6.26 V, the proton bunch was temporally focused to a bunch duration of (458 ± 40) ps at full width at half maximum (FWHM) in 6 m distance from the source. The measurement was performed with a specially developed diamond membrane detector, which had a time resolution of (113 ± 11) ps (FWHM). Finally, a second pulsed high-field solenoid was built-in as a final focusing system. In consequence, the beam was focused down to a focal spot size of 1.1 mm x 1.2 mm at FWHM. |