Design of an Active Thomson Parabola for the detection of ions accelerated by laser: Numerical simulations and characterization of different solutions

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and simulation of an active Thomson Parabola ion spectrometer using GEANT4 to measure high-energy ion spectra from laser-plasma interactions, aiming for high-rate operation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel active Thomson Parabola design optimized through numerical simulations for high-rate ion detection in laser-plasma experiments.

Findings

Optimized spectrometer configurations via simulations.

Capable of operating at high detection rates.

Detailed characterization of different design solutions.

Abstract

This article describes the development of an active Thomson Parabola ion spectrometer designed to measure the energy spectra of different multi-MeV ion species generated in laser-plasmas interactions. To do so, GEANT4 optical simulations were carried out in order to design and build a spectrometer based on scintillator detectors capable of operating at rates comparable with the highest achievable at any existing or upcoming high intensity laser facilities. Details on the different configurations simulated and their characterization are discussed.