Spectral and spatial shaping of laser-driven proton beams using a pulsed high-field magnet beamline

Intense laser-driven proton pulses, inherently broadband and highly divergent, pose a challenge to established beamline concepts on the path to application-adapted irradiation field formation, particularly for 3D. Here we experimentally show the successful implementation of a highly efficient (50% transmission) and tuneable dual pulsed solenoid setup to generate a homogeneous (8.5% uniformity laterally and in depth) volumetric dose distribution (cylindrical volume of 5 mm diameter and depth) at a single pulse dose of 0.7 Gy via multi-energy slice selection from the broad input spectrum. The experiments have been conducted at the Petawatt beam of the Dresden Laser Acceleration Source Draco and were aided by a predictive simulation model verified by proton transport studies. With the characterised beamline we investigated manipulation and matching of lateral and depth dose profiles to various desired applications and targets. Using a specifically adapted dose profile, we successfully performed first proof-of-concept laser-driven proton irradiation studies of volumetric in-vivo normal tissue (zebrafish embryos) and in-vitro tumour tissue (SAS spheroids) samples.Comment: Submitted to Scientific Report

A low background ionisation chamber for alpha-spectroscopy

The goal of designing a low background ionisation chamber is to measure long lived α-decay half-lives which might interfere with rare event searches. Such decays play a part in many fields in nuclear physics and are difficult to measure. A lot of Geiger-Nutall studies also depend on them. Among others the research is specifically aimed at the precision measurements of α emitters mainly within the Lanthanide region. The excellent energy resolution would also allow to search for excited states in α-decays. To achieve this goal a gridded ionisation chamber was constructed using the Frisch-Grid design. A background rate of only 10.9(6) counts per day has been achieved in the energy region of 1 MeV to 9 MeV and improvements are possible. This low background rate and size of the chamber allows precision measurements of long living alpha decays with half-lives in the region of 1 × 1015 years

A low background ionisation chamber for alpha-spectroscopy

The goal of designing a low background ionisation chamber is to measure long lived α-decay half-lives which might interfere with rare event searches. Such decays play a part in many fields in nuclear physics and are difficult to measure. A lot of Geiger-Nutall studies also depend on them. Among others the research is specifically aimed at the precision measurements of α emitters mainly within the Lanthanide region. The excellent energy resolution would also allow to search for excited states in α-decays. To achieve this goal a gridded ionisation chamber was constructed using the Frisch-Grid design. A background rate of only 10.9(6) counts per day has been achieved in the energy region of 1 MeV to 9 MeV and improvements are possible. This low background rate and size of the chamber allows precision measurements of long living alpha decays with half-lives in the region of 1 × 1015 years

Development of an Ionization Chamber for the Measurement of the16^{16} O(n, α{\alpha } )13^{13} C Cross-Section at the CERN n_TOF Facility

The$^{16}$ O(n,  ${\alpha }$ )$^{13}$ C reaction, as the inverse reaction of the astrophysically important$^{13}$ C( ${\alpha }$ , n)$^{16}$ O reaction, is proposed to be measured at the neutron time-of-flight (n_TOF) facility of CERN. To this purpose, a Double Frisch Grid Ionization Chamber (DFGIC) containing the oxygen atoms as a component in the counting gas has been developed and a prototype was constructed at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf(HZDR), in Germany. The first in-beam tests of the detector have been performed in November 2017 in the first (EAR1) and in April 2018 in the second (EAR2) experimental areas of the n_TOF at facility

Efficient laser-driven proton and bremsstrahlung generation from cluster-assembled foam targets

International audienceThe interaction between intense 30 fs laser pulses and foam-coated 1.5 μm-thick Al foils in the relativistic regime (up to 5 × 10$^{20}$ W cm$^{−2}$ ) is studied to optimize the laser energy conversion into laser-accelerated protons. A significant enhancement is observed for foam targets in terms of proton cut-off energy (18.5 MeV) and number of protons above 4.7 MeV (4 × 10$^9$ protons/shot) with respect to uncoated foils (9.5 MeV, 1 × 10$^9$ protons/shot), together with a sixfold increase in the bremsstrahlung yield. This enhancement is attributed to increased laser absorption and electron generation in the foam meso- and nanostructure

Data publication: Efficient laser-driven proton and Bremsstrahlung generation from cluster-assembled foam targets

Archiving of raw and results data and scripts as describef in the associated pape

Publisher Correction: Spectral and spatial shaping of laser-driven proton beams using a pulsed high-field magnet beamline.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

New results on light nuclei, hyperons and hypernuclei from HADES (HADES collaboration)

International audienceIn March 2019 the HADES experiment recorded 14 billion Ag+Ag collisions at √sNN = 2.55 GeV as a part of the FAIR phase-0 physics program. In this contribution, we present and investigate our capabilities to reconstruct and analyze weakly decaying strange hadrons and hypernuclei emerging from these collisions. The focus is put on measuring the mean lifetimes of these particles