Interaction of heavy ions with laser driven plas

The following aspects are the focus of study in the Z6 experimental area:

  • The energy loss of projectile ions in ideal and non-ideal plasmas
  • The charge state distribution of ions that penetrate the plasma
  • Charge exchange processes in ionised matter
  • The probing of plasma properties by the energy loss of heavy ions 

The figure below reviews the experimental landscape of ion stopping power in plasma. It displays the parameter domain examined in previous experiments as a function of the velocity ratio vp/vth and the electron coupling parameter Γ, which quantifies the strength of electron-electron coupling in the probed plasma. As illustrated by the documented experiments, a limited number of groups and facilities possess the capability to conduct these experiments. A substantial proportion of these experiments were carried out by the plasma physics group at TU Darmstadt in collaboration with the plasma physics group at GSI (Cayzac et al. 2017; Dietrich et al. 1990; Frank et al. 2013; Hoffmann et al. 1990; Jacoby et al. 1995; Ortner 2015; Roth et al. 2000).

In other experiments, the interaction of ion beams with turbulent plasma was studied to ascertain the mechanisms by which non-thermal particles are accelerated in astrophysical environments, such as the solar wind, supernova remnants and gamma-ray bursts. This subject is the focus of a great deal of research activity (Moczulski et al. 2024).

Various experimental setups

The figure below shows various experimental setups used at the experimental area Z6. A new experimental setup with a laser generated probe beam is shown on LIGHT. (Nazary et al. 2024).

Various targets

There are various targets to consider for he generation of the plasma target:

Directly heated foil targets exhibit the following characteristics:

Exp Z6 target3a
  • high temperature (T > 200 eV)
  • plasma highly/fully ionised
  • plasma fast expanding
  • energy loss in ideal plasma

hollow space targets with foil/foam display the following properties:

  • homogeneous
  • moderate temperature
  • slow expansion
  • energy loss in non-ideal plasma

Directly heated foams manifest the following characteristics:

Exp Z6 target3c
  • smoothing of laser energy
  • slow expansion
  • super-sonic ionisation

Cryogenic H-target displays the following properties:

Exp Z6 target3d
  • fully ionised plasma target
  • charge exchange by free electrons

References

Cayzac, W., Frank, A., Ortner, A., Bagnoud, V., Basko, M. M., Bedacht, S., Bläser, C., Blažević, A., Busold, S., Deppert, O., Ding, J., Ehret, M., Fiala, P., Frydrych, S., Gericke, D. O., Hallo, L., Helfrich, J., Jahn, D., Kjartansson, E., … Roth, M. (2017). Experimental discrimination of ion stopping models near the Bragg peak in highly ionized matter. Nature Communications, 8

(1), 15693. doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15693

Dietrich, K.-G., Hoffmann, D. H. H., Wahl, H., Haas, C. R., Kunze, H., Brandenburg, W., & Noll, R. (1990). Energy loss of heavy ions in a dense hydrogen plasma. Zeitschrift Für Physik D Atoms, Molecules and Clusters, 16

(4), 229–230. doi.org/10.1007/BF01437524

Frank, A., Blažević, A., Bagnoud, V., Basko, M. M., Börner, M., Cayzac, W., Kraus, D., Heßling, T., Hoffmann, D. H. H., Ortner, A., Otten, A., Pelka, A., Pepler, D., Schumacher, D., Tauschwitz, A., & Roth, M. (2013). Energy Loss and Charge Transfer of Argon in a Laser-Generated Carbon Plasma. Physical Review Letters, 110

(11), 115001. doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.115001

Hoffmann, D. H. H., Weyrich, K., Wahl, H., Gardés, D., Bimbot, R., & Fleurier, C. (1990). Energy loss of heavy ions in a plasma target. Physical Review A, 42

(4), 2313–2321. doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.42.2313

Jacoby, J., Hoffmann, D. H. H., Laux, W., Müller, R. W., Wahl, H., Weyrich, K., Boggasch, E., Heimrich, B., Stöckl, C., Wetzler, H., & Miyamoto, S. (1995). Stopping of Heavy Ions in a Hydrogen Plasma. Physical Review Letters, 74

(9), 1550–1553. doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.1550

Ortner, A. (2015). Energieverlust und Ladungsverteilung von Calciumionen in dichtem, schwach gekoppeltem Kohlenstoffplasma

[Technische Universität Darmstadt]. tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/4967

Moczulski, K., Wen, H., Campbell, T., Scopatz, A., Palmer, C. A. J., Bott, A. F. A., Arrowsmith, C. D., Beyer, K. A., Blazevic, A., Bagnoud, V., Feister, S., Halliday, J., Karnbach, O., Metternich, M., Nazary, H., Neumayer, P., Reyes, A., Hansen, E. C., Schumacher, D., … Tzeferacos, P. (2024). Numerical simulations of laser-driven experiments of ion acceleration in stochastic magnetic fields. Physics of Plasmas, 31

(12). doi.org/10.1063/5.0223496

Roth, M., Stöckl, C., Süß, W., Iwase, O., Gericke, D. O., Bock, R., Hoffmann, D. H. H., Geissel, M., & Seelig, W. (2000). Energy loss of heavy ions in laser-produced plasmas. Europhysics Letters (EPL), 50

(1), 28–34. doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2000-00230-6

Nazary, H., Metternich, M., Schumacher, D., Neufeld, F., Grimm, S. J., Brabetz, C., Kroll, F., Brack, F.-E., Blažević, A., Schramm, U., Bagnoud, V., & Roth, M. (2024). Towards ion stopping power experiments with the laser-driven LIGHT beamline. Journal of Plasma Physics, 90

(3), 905900302. doi.org/10.1017/S0022377824000576