Monoenergetic proton beams accelerated by a radiation pressure driven shock

High energy ion beams (> MeV) generated by intense laser pulses promise to be viable alternatives to conventional ion beam sources due to their unique properties such as high charge, low emittance, compactness and ease of beam delivery. Typically the acceleration is due to the rapid expansion of a laser heated solid foil, but this usually leads to ion beams with large energy spread. Until now, control of the energy spread has only been achieved at the expense of reduced charge and increased complexity. Radiation pressure acceleration (RPA) provides an alternative route to producing laser-driven monoenergetic ion beams. In this paper, we show the interaction of an intense infrared laser with a gaseous hydrogen target can produce proton spectra of small energy spread (~ 4%), and low background. The scaling of proton energy with the ratio of intensity over density (I/n) indicates that the acceleration is due to the shock generated by radiation-pressure driven hole-boring of the critical surface. These are the first high contrast mononenergetic beams that have been theorised from RPA, and makes them highly desirable for numerous ion beam applications

Inverse Cherenkov and inverse FEL accelerator experiments at the Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility

Status update on the ongoing inverse Cherenkov acceleration experiment and prospects to its 100 MeV short-term upgrade. The first report on 1 MeV electron acceleration with the 0.5 GW CO{sub 2} laser used in the inverse FEL scheme. (author). 22 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab

A high stability Nd:YAG photocathode drive laser

A versatile, highly stable, reliable Nd:YAG laser is in operation at Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) for illuminating a metal photocathode RF electron gun. This system addresses stringent requirements on pulse duration, pulse timing jitter, pulse energy, spatial profile, and pointing imposed by electron accelerator experiments. This paper describes the oscillator operation, (which also includes control of a semicconductor switch for ATF`s high power CO{sub 2} laser), beam transport to the cathode, etc

Experiments in non-perturbative electron beam characterization with the MIT microwiggler at the Accelerator Test Facility at BNL

We report a new method through which the properties of an electron beam at linac energies may be studied using the spontaneous emission of a microwiggler. The setup is simple and the measurement efficient. A simple set of scaling laws is derived to describe broadening of spontaneous emission in a narrow bandwidth radiation cone. The relations suggest that one can obtain beam divergence from a cone at large angle in a single shot measurement. A systematic series of experiments was performed with the MIT Microwiggler at the Accelerator Test Facility at BNL which demonstrated the response of the cone to changes in the beam quality, Estimates of divergence can be obtained from the measurements of the radiation cone

Experimental Observation of IFEL Micro-Bunching Using Coherent Transition Radiation

Electron beam bunching in the optical wavelength was observed experimentally for the first time at the Brookhaven Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) using the Inverse Free Electron (IFEL) accelerator. The micro-bunched electron beam has been studied by measuring the coherent transition radiation (CTR). The authors have experimentally observed a quadratic dependency of the CTR signal with the charge of the electron beam and the observation distance

Atto Second Electron Beams Generation and Characterization Experiment at the Accelerator Test Facility.

We are proposing an Atto-second electron beam generation and diagnostics experiment at the Brookhaven Accelerator Test facility (ATF) using 1 {micro}m Inverse Free Electron Laser (IFEL). The proposed experiment will be carried out by an BNL/LBNL collaboration, and it will be installed at the ATF beam line II. The proposed experiment will employ a one-meter long undulator with 1.8 cm period (VISA undulator). The electron beam energy will be 63 MeV with emittance less than 2 mm-mrad and energy spread less than 0.05%. The ATF photocathode injector driving laser will be used for energy modulation by Inverse Free Electron Laser (IFEL). With 10 MW laser peak power, about 2% total energy modulation is expected. The energy modulated electron beam will be further bunched through either a drift space or a three magnet chicane into atto-second electron bunches. The attosecond electron beam bunches will be analyzed using the coherent transition radiation (CTR)

Photoinduced anisotropic lattice dynamic response and domain formation in thermoelectric SnSe

Identifying and understanding the mechanisms behind strong phonon–phonon scattering in condensed matter systems is critical to maximizing the efficiency of thermoelectric devices. To date, the leading method to address this has been to meticulously survey the full phonon dispersion of the material in order to isolate modes with anomalously large linewidth and temperature-dependence. Here we combine quantitative MeV ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) analysis with Monte Carlo based dynamic diffraction simulation and first-principles calculations to directly unveil the soft, anharmonic lattice distortions of model thermoelectric material SnSe. A small single-crystal sample is photoexcited with ultrafast optical pulses and the soft, anharmonic lattice distortions are isolated using MeV-UED as those associated with long relaxation time and large displacements. We reveal that these modes have interlayer shear strain character, induced mainly by c-axis atomic displacements, resulting in domain formation in the transient state. These findings provide an innovative approach to identify mechanisms for ultralow and anisotropic thermal conductivity and a promising route to optimizing thermoelectric devices