Commissioning of the PRIOR proton microscope

TL;DR

The paper reports on the design, construction, and successful commissioning of the PRIOR proton microscope at GSI, demonstrating high spatial and temporal resolution for proton radiography and introducing a new pulsed power setup for extreme matter studies.

Contribution

It presents the first static and dynamic proton radiography experiments using the newly commissioned PRIOR facility and details its setup and capabilities.

Findings

Achieved 30 um spatial resolution in proton imaging.

Demonstrated 10 ns temporal resolution in proton microscopy.

Successfully performed initial static and dynamic radiography experiments.

Abstract

Recently a new high energy proton microscopy facility PRIOR (Proton Microscope for FAIR) has been designed, constructed and successfully commissioned at GSI Helmholtzzentrum f\"ur Schwerionenforschung (Darmstadt, Germany). As a result of the experiments with 3.5-4.5 GeV proton beams delivered by the heavy ion synchrotron SIS-18 of GSI, 30 um spatial and 10 ns temporal resolutions of the proton microscope have been demostrated. A new pulsed power setup for studying properties of matter under extremes has been developed for the dynamic commissioning of the PRIOR facility. This paper describes the PRIOR setup as well as the results of the first static and dynamic proton radiography experiments performed at GSI.