Access Facilities - GSI, Darmstadt, Germany

GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany

GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany is an accelerator laboratory financed by the federal government (90%) and several federal states (10%). GSI is member of the Helmholtz Association. The PHELIX laser presently permits two types of operation: Pulses of a duration between 0.5 ns and 20 ns with a widely variable pulse shape and energies up to 1 kJ, and 0.5 ps short-pulse petawatt-class operation. One high-energy and one low-energy laser standalone target area is available, as well as a target area for combined laser / linear accelerator ion beam experiments with a dedicated 100 TW protonacceleration beamline. A second target area for the combination of laser long-pulse and synchrotron ion beam is under construction and planned to be available by 2021.

Excellence: What makes PHELIX world-wide unique is the combination of this laser with the GSI heavy-ion accelerator facility. The accelerator features the exceptional combination of the linear accelerator UNILAC, the synchrotron SIS and the storage ring ESR, delivering heavy ions with energies up to 1 GeV/u. The ESR heavy-in cooler-storage ring is the only facility world-wide which provides high-quality cooled beams of highly-charged heavy ions in a broad energy range, with long storage times and single-ion detection sensitivity. A dedicated target station for Laser/Heavy-ion experiments is in operation since spring 2008, a second one will be available by 2021.

Publications:

- Towards highest peak intensities for ultra-short MeV-range ion bunches, S. Busold et al., Nature Scientific Reports 5, 12459 (2015)
- Studying the Dynamics of Relativistic Laser-Plasma Interaction on Thin Foils by Means of Fourier-Transform Spectral Interferometry, V. Bagnoud et al., Physical Review Letters 118, 255003 (2017)
- Maximum Proton Energy above 85 MeV from the Relativistic Interaction of Laser Pulses with Micrometer Thick CH2 Targets, F. Wagner et al., Physical Review Letters 116, 205002 (2016)
- Experimental discrimination of ion stopping models near the Bragg peak in highly ionized matter, W. Cayzac et al., Nature Communications 8, 15693 (2017)

Illustration of high energy laser pulses and heavy ion pulses being synchronized and combined. Experiments are available at various locations.