INTERACTION EXPERIMENTS OF MEV HEAVY-IONS WITH A LASER-PLASMA AND A Z-PINCH HELIUM PLASMA

Experimental investigations into the interaction of an ion beam with a plasma target showed increased stripping as compared to cold targets. Measurements were performed with a 900 keV ion beam of Li-7(1+). The plasma was created by irradiating the surface of a polyethylene disk w ith a 6 J TEA CO2 laser. This produced a partially ionized surface blo w-off plasma with electron densities between 10(18) and 10(16) cm(-3). As another plasma target a z-pinch discharge in helium gas has been p repared. This target yields electron densities of about 5 x 10(17) cm( -3). Interaction will be measured with a 6 MeV/u Ar-40(18+) beam from the HIMAC accelerator. Concerning the detector signals, the beam line was designed to minimize any noise stemming from the pulsed discharge. The beam line allows acceptably good beam transmission for current de nsities in the plasma of up to 80 kA/cm(2). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.