Towards pump-probe experiments of defect dynamics with short ion beam pulses

Abstract A novel, induction type linear accelerator, the Neutralized Drift Compression eXperiment (NDCX-II), is currently being commissioned at Berkeley Lab. This accelerator is designed to deliver intense (up to 3 × 10 11  ions/pulse), 0.6 to ∼600 ns duration pulses of 0.05–1.2 MeV lithium ions at a rate of about 2 pulses per minute onto 1–10 mm scale target areas. When focused to mm-diameter spots, the beam is predicted to volumetrically heat micrometer thick foils to temperatures of ∼30,000 °K. At lower beam power densities, the short excitation pulse with tunable intensity and time profile enables pump–probe type studies of defect dynamics in a broad range of materials. We briefly describe the accelerator concept and design, present results from beam pulse shaping experiments and discuss examples of pump–probe type studies of defect dynamics following irradiation of materials with intense, short ion beam pulses from NDCX-II.