In this paper, potential of diagnostics with the use of Kα radiation for an energy deposition process from an intense ion-beam to background plasma is considered quantitatively. Kα radiation is a good candidate for the purpose. The wavelength of Kα radiation is varied according to the charge state of an emitter atom, and the diagnostics spatially resolved with radiations from various kinds of charge states can give us a profile of plasma temperature in a target material. For the calculation of Kα yield, an atomic population kinetics code is developed, and the result shows that Kα radiation has potential to get information of a plasma profile heated by an intense ion-beam.

In this article, we analyze the sensitivity of the charge and energy distribution of a swift heavy ion beam interacting with a dense plasma on the thermodynamic and dynamic properties of the target. We study more particularly partially ionized carbon targets in which both the bound and the free electrons yield a significant contribution to the stopping. The emphasis is put on direct and indirect correlation between charge transfer and stopping. We show that nonlinearities, appearing in the interaction process for heavy ions, increase the dependency of the stopping on the plasma properties, indicating that diagnostics based on the analysis of the beam ions can provide valuable information on the target properties.

The Target Fabrication Facility (TFF) of an inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant must supply about 500,000 targets per day. The target is injected into the target chamber at a rate of 5–10 Hz and tracked precisely so the heavy ion driver beams can be directed to the target. The feasibility of developing successful fabrication and injection methodologies at the low cost required for energy production (about $0.25/target, approximately 104 times less than current costs) is a critical issue for inertial fusion energy. A significant program is underway to develop the high-volume methods to supply economical IFE targets. This article reviews the requirements for heavy ion driven IFE target fabrication and injection, and presents the current status of and results from the development program. For the first time, an entire pathway from beginning to end is outlined for fabrication of a high-gain, distributed radiator target. A significant development and scale-up program will be necessary to implement this pathway for mass production of IFE targets.

Significant experimental and theoretical progress has been made in the U.S. heavy ion fusion program on high-current sources, transport, and focusing. Currents over 200 mA have been transported through a matching section and 10 half-lattice periods with electric quadrupoles. An experiment shows control of high-beam current with an aperture, while avoiding secondary electrons. New theory and simulations of the neutralization of intense beam space charge with plasma in various focusing chamber configurations predict that near-emittance-limited beam focal spot sizes can be obtained even with beam perveance (ratio of beam space potential to ion energy) >10× higher than in earlier HIF focusing experiments. Progress in a new focusing experiment with plasma neutralization up to 10−3 perveance, and designs for a next-step experiment to study beam brightness evolution from source to target are described.

The production of highly charged ions in a CO2 laser-generated plasma is compared for different laser pulse-time structures. The work was performed at the CERN Laser Ion Source, which has the aim of developing a high current, high charge-state ion source for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). When an intense laser pulse is focused onto a high-Z metal target, the ions expanding in the plasma plume are suitable for extraction from the plasma and matching into a synchrotron. For the first time, a comparison is made between free-running pulses with randomly fluctuating intensity, and mode-locked pulse trains with a reproducible structure and the same energy. Despite the lower power density with respect to the mode-locked pulse train, the free-running pulse provides higher charge states and higher yield.