HEAVY-ION BEAM FOCUSING WITH A WALL-STABILIZED PLASMA LENS

Focusing of heavy-ion beams is an important issue for ion beam-driven inertial confinement fusion. For the experimental program to investiga te matter at high energy densities at GSI, the application of a plasma lens has attractive features compared to standard quadrupole lenses. A plasma lens using a wall-stabilized discharge has been systematicall y investigated and optimized for this purpose. Different lenses were t ested in several runs at the GSI linear accelerator UNILAC and at the SIS-synchrotron. A remarkably high accuracy and reproducibility of the focusing were found. The focal spot size was mainly limited by the be am emittance. A summary of experimental results and important limitati ons of the focal spot size is given.