Charge and mass resolved time of flight observations of 140 fs laser produced ions

Abstract

Ions from this plasma are self‐extracting with energies of 0.1 to 100 keV, the extraction potential being one of the desired observables. The charge/mass (z/μ, μ is mass in AMU) separation is provided by a static magnetic field (B⋅L=1280 G cm, FWHM=14 mm) located 5 cm from the linear (1−d) detector. Displacement along the detector axis is thus proportional to z/μ(1/v). The detector is a gold cathode MCP with a fast (sub‐ns) phosphor. The phosphor output is coupled into a streak camera (typical sweep 8.5 or 24 μs total) through a coherent fiber bundle. Streak images are grabbed with a 14‐bit CCD. The signature of any specific ion is a straight line of slope proportional to z/μ. Since there are usually more than one charge state of a given ion, integer multiple slopes appear. Thus z and m can be found. Absolute calibration is taken from the slope of the proton streak, which is always present with our plasmas. While providing the same information as a Thomson parabola, the straight line images are easier to extract information from and offer resolution with less energy dependence. By providing mass and time of flight information, the product of z⋅T_e can be determined unambiguously during the hydrodynamic acceleration of the plasma.