Collective Acceleration of Laser Produced Ions

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Abstract
Experimental studies of the collective acceleration of laser produced ions have been conducted. An intense relativistic electron beam (1 MeV, 30 kA, 30 ns) is emitted from a 4 mm diameter tungsten cathode and passes through a 2.4 cm hole in a stainless steel anode into a 14 cm diameter downstream drift tube. Ions are provided on the downstream side of the anode plane by firing a 4-10 J, 15 ns Q-switched ruby' laser pulse at solid or foil targets mounted on the downstream side of the anode plane. Accelerated ion energies are measured using time of flight and range energy/track etching techniques. Ion charge states are measured using an EIB Thomson spectrometer. Results will be compared with measurements of the pre-acceleration characteristics of the laser produced ions from these target geometries obtained using an electrostatic analyzer.