Induction heating for desorption of surface contamination for high-repetition laser-driven carbon-ion acceleration

This study reports the first experimental demonstration of surface contamination cleaning from a high-repetition supply of thin-tape targets for laser-driven carbon-ion acceleration.The adsorption of contaminants containing protons,mainly water vapor and hydrocarbons,on the surface of materials exposed to low vacuum(>10^(−3)Pa)suppresses carbon-ion acceleration.The newly developed contamination cleaner heats a 5-μm-thick nickel tape to over 400℃in 100 ms by induction heating.In the future,this heating method could be scaled to laserdriven carbon-ion acceleration at rates beyond 10 Hz.The contaminant hydrogen is eliminated from the heated nickel surface,and a carbon source layer—derived from the contaminant carbon—is spontaneously formed by the catalytic effect of nickel.The species of ions accelerated from the nickel film heated to various temperatures have been observed experimentally.When the nickel film is heated beyond∼150℃,the proton signal considerably decreases,with a remarkable increase in the number and energy of carbon ions.The Langmuir adsorption model adequately explains the temperature dependence of desorption and re-adsorption of the adsorbed molecules on a heated target surface,and the temperature required for proton-free carbon-ion acceleration can be estimated.

Coherent X-ray mirage: discovery and possible applications

In the far field of the intensity distribution of the beam delivered by a two-stage transient–collisional excitation X-ray laser(XRL), a non-expected interference pattern that is stable from shot to shot has been discovered. It is demonstrated that the interference is caused by the emergence of an imaginary source in the amplifying plasma, which is phase matched to the radiation of the generator. The observed phenomenon is called an X-ray coherent mirage. To explain the obtained results, a new theoretical approach is developed. The basic essential conditions for formation of the X-ray mirage are formulated, and possible applications are discussed. This paper details the experiments, including the formulation of the necessary and sufficient conditions for formation of the X-ray mirage, and possible applications are discussed.

Soft X-ray laser observation of femtosecond-laser-driven ablation of tungsten

Ablation dynamics of tungsten irradiated with a 70 fs laser pulse is investigated with X-ray interferometry and X-ray imaging using a 13.9 nm soft X-ray laser of 7 ps pulse duration. The evolution of high-density ablation front of tungsten （i.e., W） is presented. The ablation front expands to ~120 nm above the original target surface at 160 ps after femtosecond-laser irradiation with an expansion speed of approximately 750 m/s. These results will provide important data for understanding ablation properties of W, which is a candidate material of the first wall of magnetic confinement fusion reactors.