High charge-state ion beam production from a laser ion source

The high current, high charge-state ion beam which can be extracted from a laser produced plasma is well suited, after initial acceleration, for injection into synchrotrons. At CERN, the production of a heavy ion beam using such a source is studied. A 60 mA pulse of a mixture of high charge state tantalum or lead ions of 5 μs duration has been extracted at 59 kV. The resulting beam emittance and energy spread were measured. A Low Energy Beam Transport system (LEBT) consisting of two pulsed solenoids is used to match the beam to a four-rod Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ). Preliminary results are given for the acceleration of the beam by an RFQ, designed for the acceleration of 10 mA of Ta to an energy of 100 keV/u.