HIGH-ENERGY DENSITY IN SOLID RARE-GAS TARGETS AND SOLID HYDROGEN

The accelerator facilities at GSI Darmstadt offer a unique possibility for experiments with heavy ion induced dense plasma. Although the int ensity of these heavy ion beams is far below the regime of Inertial Fu sion Energy (IFE), such beams are used to study basic physics and to d evelop diagnostic tools and special heavy ion target designs. During t he last years hydrodynamic motion has been induced for the first time in cryogenic crystals and metal targets by stopping intense heavy ion beams. In recent experiments at the High Density Target Area a maximum specific energy deposition of 1 kJ/g in the target was reached. The n ext generation of targets will consist of rare gas crystals of neon an d hydrogen and compound targets, where the high energy deposition of h igh Z materials is combined with the observation of the interesting ph enomena in rare gases or hydrogen. A first step is taken with the impl ementation of a new cryosystem and first experiments with solid neon a s target. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.