The effect of cataract on early stage glaucoma detection using spatial and temporal contrast sensitivity tests

Background: To investigate the effect of cataract on the ability of spatial and temporal contrast sensitivity tests used to detect early glaucoma. Methods: Twenty-seven glaucoma subjects with early cataract (mean age 60 ±10.2 years) which constituted the test group were recruited together with twenty-seven controls (cataract only) matched for age and cataract type from a primary eye care setting. Contrast sensitivity to flickering gratings at 20 Hz and stationary gratings with and without glare, were measured for 0.5, 1.5 and 3 cycles per degree (cpd) in central vision. Perimetry and structural measurements with the Heidelberg Retinal Tomograph (HRT) were also performed. Results: After considering the effect of cataract, contrast sensitivity to stationary gratings was reduced in the test group compared with controls with a statistically significant mean difference of 0.2 log units independent of spatial frequency. The flicker test showed a significant difference between test and control group at 1.5 and 3 cpd (p = 0.019 and p = 0.011 respectively). The percentage of glaucoma patients who could not see the temporal modulation was much higher compared with their cataract only counterparts. A significant correlation was found between the reduction of contrast sensitivity caused by glare and the Glaucoma Probability Score (GPS) as measured with the HRT (p<0.005). Conclusions: These findings indicate that both spatial and temporal contrast sensitivity tests are suitable for distinguishing between vision loss as a consequence of glaucoma and vision loss caused by cataract only. The correlation between glare factor and GPS suggests that there may be an increase in intraocular stray light in glaucoma

Measurement of ionization, charge exchange and ion confinement times in charge breeder ECR ion sources with short pulse 1+ injection of metal ions

International audienceThe Consecutive Transients (CT) method is used for estimating the characteristic times of ionization, charge exchange and confinement within the plasma of a Charge Breeder Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source (CB-ECRIS). The method reveals differences in the characteristic times between different source configurations, with K$^{9+}$ charge breeding efficiencies of 8.9 % and 20.4 %, and allows qualitative explanation of the improved breeding efficiency. The increase in K$^{9+}$ efficiency is accompanied by a decrease in ionization time for low charge states, a decrease of charge exchange time for high charge states, and an overall decrease of the ion confinement time, which increases non-linearly with the charge state. The charge exchange time exhibits a minimum near charge state K$^{8+}$, indicating low neutral density near the plasma core. The CT-method yields a distribution of possible n$_{e}$ and (Ee) corresponding to the spatial distribution of different charge state ions. The results hint at a non-uniform plasma electron density and energy distribution as well as a nested-layer distribution for the ion populations — hot and dense plasma with high charge state ions near the plasma core

The effects of electron energy distribution and ionization cross section uncertainty on charge breeder ion source diagnostics with pulsed 1<b>+</b> injection

International audienceThe consecutive transients (CT) method is a plasma diagnostic technique of charge breeder electron cyclotron resonance ion source plasmas. It is based on the short-pulse injection of singly charged ions and the measurement of the resulting transients of the extracted multi-charged ion beams. Here, we study the origin of the large uncertainty bounds yielded by the method to reveal avenues to improve its accuracy. We investigate effects of the assumed electron energy distribution (EED) and the uncertainty inherited from the ionization cross section data of K4+–K12+ ions on the resulting plasma electron density ne, average energy ⟨Ee⟩, and the characteristic times of ion confinement τq, electron impact ionization τinzq, and charge exchange τcxq provided by the CT method. The role of the EED was probed with Kappa and double-Maxwellian distributions, the latter resulting in a shift of the ne and ⟨Ee⟩ distributions. The uncertainty of the ionization cross section σq→q+1inz was artificially curtailed to investigate its impact on values and uncertainties of the plasma parameters. It is demonstrated that the hypothetical perfect knowledge of σq→q+1inz significantly reduces the uncertainties of τq, τinzq, and τcxq, which motivates the need for improved cross section data.</jats:p

Recent developments and results of the LPSC PHOENIX type ECR charge breeder

International audienceFour models of the PHOENIX ECR charge breeder have been manufactured for ISOL application. Two are currently under operation at TRIUMF (ISAC) and GANIL (SPIRAL 1) while the SPES one is being installed on the facility. The last model is set on the LPSC 1+N+ test bench where a R&D program is ongoing to improve its performances. The last modifications consisted in improving the beam line vacuum and the alignment. Commissioning experiments showed an improvement of the charge breeder performances for all the tested species. The global CB efficiency is close to 100% for Cs when correcting the measurements with the beam transmission. Na and K efficiencies have increased significantly to reach 18.7% for Na$^{8+}$ and 22.7% for K$^{9+}$. In parallel, the charge breeder plasma was studied injecting short pulses of 1+ ions and using a zero-dimension model to estimate the plasma parameters. These experiments have provided a better understanding of the performance improvement. The last developments of the LPSC Charge Breeder together with the experimental results are presented

Diagnostics of highly charged plasmas with multicomponent <math><mrow><mn>1</mn><mo>+</mo></mrow></math> ion injection

International audienceWe establish multicomponent 1+ injection into a charge breeder electron cyclotron resonance ion source and an associated computational procedure as a noninvasive probe of the electron density ne, average electron energy 〈Ee〉, and the characteristic times of ionization, charge exchange, and ion confinement of stochastically heated, highly charged plasma. Multicomponent injection allows refining the ne, 〈Ee〉 ranges, reducing experimental uncertainty. Na/K injection is presented as a demonstration. The 〈Ee〉 and ne of a hydrogen discharge are found to be 600−300+600eV and 8−3+8×1011cm−3, respectively. The ionization, charge exchange, and confinement times of high charge state alkali ions are on the order of 1 ms–10 ms

Method for estimating charge breeder ECR ion source plasma parameters with short pulse 1+ injection

International audienceA new method for determining plasma parameters from beam current transients resulting from short pulse 1+ injection into a Charge Breeder Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source (CB-ECRIS) has been developed. The proposed method relies on few assumptions, and yields the ionisation times $1/n_e\left\langle\sigma v\right\rangle^{\text{inz}}_{q\to q+1}$, charge exchange times $1/n_0\left\langle\sigma v\right\rangle^{\text{cx}}_{q\to q-1}$, the ion confinement times $\tau^q$, as well as the plasma energy contents $n_e\left\langle E_e\right\rangle$ and the plasma triple products $n_e \left\langle E_e\right\rangle \tau^q$. The method is based on fitting the current balance equation on the extracted beam currents of high charge state ions, and using the fitting coefficients to determine the postdictions for the plasma parameters via an optimisation routine. The method has been applied for the charge breeding of injected K$^+$ ions in helium plasma. It is shown that the confinement times of K$^{q+}$ charge states range from 2.6$^{+0.8}_{-0.4}$ ms to 16.4$^{+18.3}_{-6.8}$ ms increasing with the charge state. The ionisation and charge exchange times for the high charge state ions are 2.6$^{+0.5}_{-0.5}$ ms--12.6$^{+2.6}_{-3.2}$ ms and 3.7$^{+5.0}_{-1.6}$ ms--357.7$^{+406.7}_{-242.4}$ ms, respectively. The plasma energy content is found to be $2.5^{+4.3}_{-1.8}\times 10^{15}$ eV/cm$^3$