I-BEAT: New ultrasonic method for single bunch measurement of ion energy distribution

TL;DR

I-BEAT is a novel ultrasonic technique that accurately measures the energy distribution of single ion bunches using acoustic signals, offering a compact, robust, and high-dynamic-range solution for laser-driven ion acceleration diagnostics.

Contribution

This paper introduces I-BEAT, a new ultrasonic method for real-time, single-bunch ion energy distribution measurement, generalizing the ionoacoustic approach with improved features.

Findings

Successfully demonstrated I-BEAT with laser-driven proton sources

Achieved quantitative energy distribution measurements of single ion bunches

Showed potential for high-flux, ultrashort ion bunch diagnostics

Abstract

The shape of a wave carries all information about the spatial and temporal structure of its source, given that the medium and its properties are known. Most modern imaging methods seek to utilize this nature of waves originating from Huygens' principle. We discuss the retrieval of the complete kinetic energy distribution from the acoustic trace that is recorded when a short ion bunch deposits its energy in water. This novel method, which we refer to as Ion-Bunch Energy Acoustic Tracing (I-BEAT), is a generalization of the ionoacoustic approach. Featuring compactness, simple operation, indestructibility and high dynamic ranges in energy and intensity, I-BEAT is a promising approach to meet the needs of petawatt-class laser-based ion accelerators. With its capability of completely monitoring a single, focused proton bunch with prompt readout it, is expected to have particular impact for experiments and applications using ultrashort ion bunches in high flux regimes. We demonstrate its functionality using it with two laser-driven ion sources for quantitative determination of the kinetic energy distribution of single, focused proton bunches.