Search Results (5 total)

High-energy heavy ions are an ideal tool to generate homogeneously excited, extended volumes of nonthermal plasmas. Here, the high-energy loss (dE/dx) and absolute power deposition of heavy ions interacting with matter has been used to pump an ultraviolet laser. A pulsed 70  MeV/u ²³⁸U beam with up to 2.5×10⁹ particles in ∼100  ns beam bunches was stopped in a 1.2 m long laser cell filled with a 1.6 bar Ar-Kr-F₂ mixture (typically 50%∶49.9%∶0.1%). Laser effect on the 248 nm KrF^* excimer transition is clearly demonstrated.

The subject of high-energy-density (HED) states in matter is of considerable importance to numerous branches of basic as well as applied physics. Intense heavy-ion beams are an excellent tool to create large samples of HED matter in the laboratory with fairly uniform physical conditions. Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, is a unique worldwide laboratory that has a heavy-ion synchrotron, SIS18, that delivers intense beams of energetic heavy ions. Construction of a much more powerful synchrotron, SIS100, at the future international facility for antiprotons and ion research (FAIR) at Darmstadt will lead to an increase in beam intensity by 3 orders of magnitude compared to what is currently available. The purpose of this Letter is to investigate with the help of two-dimensional numerical simulations, the potential of the FAIR to carry out research in the field of HED states in matter.

This paper presents two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of implosion of a multilayered cylindrical target that is driven by an intense heavy ion beam which has an annular focal spot. The target consists of a hollow lead cylinder which is filled with hydrogen at one tenth of the solid density at room temperature. The beam is assumed to be made of 2.7-GeV/u uranium ions and six different cases for the beam intensity (total number of particles in the beam, N) are considered. In each of these six cases the particles are delivered in single bunches, 20 ns long. The simulations have been carried out using a two-dimensional hydrodynamic computer code BIG-2. A multiple shock reflection scheme is employed in these calculations that leads to very high densities of the compressed hydrogen while the temperature remains relatively low. In this study we have used two different equation-of-state models for hydrogen, namely, the SESAME data and a model that includes molecular dissociation that is based on a fluid variational theory in the neutral fluid region which is replaced by Padé approximation in the fully ionized plasma region. Our calculations show that the latter model predicts higher densities, higher pressures but lower temperatures compared to the SESAME model. The differences in the results are more pronounced for lower driving energies (lower beam intensities).

The subject of high-energy density (HED) in matter is of considerable interest to many branches of physics. Intense beams of energetic heavy ions are a promising tool for creating large samples of HED matter which can be used to study the equation-of-state properties of such exotic states of matter experimentally. The Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI), Darmstadt, is a unique laboratory worldwide which has a heavy ion synchrotron facility, SIS18 (with a magnetic rigidity of 18 Tm), that delivers intense heavy ion beams. Using the beams generated at this present facility, interesting experimental work has been carried out in the field of HED matter [D. H. H. Hoffmann , Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B 161–162, 9 (2000)]. The GSI is planning to significantly expand its accelerator capabilities with construction of a new synchrotron ring, SIS100, which will have a magnetic rigidity of 100 Tm. This new facility will deliver a uranium beam which will have orders of magnitude higher intensity than the existing facility and will also have the possibility of multibeam acceleration. This paper presents two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of different target geometries including solid as well as hollow cylinders that are irradiated with beams having different shapes of the focal spot which will be available at the SIS100 facility. These include a circular focal spot, an annular focal spot, and an elliptic focal spot, respectively. The purpose of this study is to determine the region of the physical parameters including density, temperature, and pressure that can be accessed using the SIS100 beam. This information, we hope, will be useful for designing experiments on the studies of thermophysical properties of matter including the designing of appropriate diagnostic tools.

A specifically tailored plasma lens could shape a high-energy, heavy-ion beam into the form of a hollow cylinder without loss of beam intensity. It has been experimentally confirmed that both a positive as well as a negative radial gradient of the current density in the active plasma lens can be the underlying principle. Calculations were performed that yield the ideal current density distribution for both cases. A numerical simulation of an experiment with an intense ion beam highlights that the shaping of the beam increases the achievable compression in a lead sample.