Anomalous Beam Transport through Gabor (Plasma) Lens Prototype
An electron plasma lens is a cost-effective, compact, strong-focusing element that can ensure efficient capture of low-energy proton and ion beams from laser-driven sources. A Gabor lens prototype was built for high electron density operation at Imperial College London. The parameters of the stable...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/10/4357 |
| Summary: | An electron plasma lens is a cost-effective, compact, strong-focusing element that can ensure efficient capture of low-energy proton and ion beams from laser-driven sources. A Gabor lens prototype was built for high electron density operation at Imperial College London. The parameters of the stable operation regime of the lens and its performance during a beam test with 1.4 MeV protons are reported here. Narrow pencil beams were imaged on a scintillator screen 67 cm downstream of the lens. The lens converted the pencil beams into rings that show position-dependent shape and intensity modulation that are dependent on the settings of the lens. Characterisation of the focusing effect suggests that the plasma column exhibited an off-axis rotation similar to the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>m</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> diocotron instability. The association of the instability with the cause of the rings was investigated using particle tracking simulations. |
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| ISSN: | 2076-3417 |