Planar targets
Freestanding foils provide the basis for laser-driven ion acceleration. LMU's target factory is capable of producing thin targets in a large variety of materials and thickness. Most commonly used are for example Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) foils with 5 to 200 nm thickness, plastic foils with 5 nm to 5 µm thickness, and Gold-foils as thin as 5 nm. Carbon-Nano-Tube (CNT) foams can be supplied either stand alone or attached to solid foils to form layered targets with density modulation.
In addition to production, targetry also requires positioning systems. The first break through has been the demonstration of functionality of our prototype nano-Foil Target Positioning System (n-FTPS). It provides space for almost 2000 target foils and enables positioning a fresh target with micrometer accuracy into the focal spot of the laser every 2 seconds. The movie below shows the n-FTPS in operation on a test bench.
Publikation: Gao Y, Bin J, Haffa D, Kreuzer C, Hartmann J, Speicher M, Lindner FH, Ostermayr TM, Hilz P, Rösch TF, Lehrack S, Englbrecht F, Seuferling S, Gilljohann M, Ding H, Ma W, Parodi K, Schreiber J, An automated, 0.5 Hz nano-foil target positioning system for intense laser plasma experiments, High Power Laser Science and Engineering 5 (2017) e12.