title: Iron plasma generation using a Nd:YAG laser pulse of several hundred picoseconds.
abstract: We investigated the high intensity plasma generated by using a Nd:YAG laser to apply a laser-produced plasma to the direct plasma injection scheme. The capability of the source to generate high charge state ions strongly depends on the power density of the laser irradiation. Therefore, we focused on using a higher power laser with several hundred picoseconds of pulse width. The iron target was irradiated with the pulsed laser, and the ion current of the laser-produced iron plasma was measured using a Faraday cup and the charge state distribution was investigated using an electrostatic ion analyzer. We found that higher charge state iron ions (up to Fe(21+)) were obtained using a laser pulse of several hundred picoseconds in comparison to those obtained using a laser pulse of several nanoseconds (up to Fe(19+)). We also found that when the laser irradiation area was relatively large, the laser power was absorbed mainly by the contamination on the target surface.
authors.affiliation: J-PARC Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Ibaraki 319-1195, Japan.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kumaki
authors.affiliation: Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan.
authors.forename: Kotaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kondo
authors.affiliation: Collider-Accelerator Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kanesue
authors.affiliation: Collider-Accelerator Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA.
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okamura