Improvement of Characteristics of Laser Source of Ions Using Two-Element Targets
Abstract
Two‐element plasma ions generated from porous (Ho2O3) and solid (PbMg) targets were studied depending on the target density ρ and on the fraction of light (Mg) component of the target, using a mass‐spectrometer. Oxygen ions with maximal charge is observed for small values of ρ, while the heavy component of the target Ho has maximal charge for larger values of ρ. The influence of ρ to the energy spectra and intensity of plasma ions is also investigated. In the case of solid (PbMg) target the increase of the fraction of Mg leads to the widening of the energy spectra of Pb ions by more than a factor of two, while the intensity of Pb ions of all charge states does not depend on the Mg fraction. These effects are explained by the friction existing between light and heavy ions during their expansion away from the target.