Construction and characterization of a laser-driven proton beamline at GSI

The thesis includes the first experiments with the new 100 TW laser beamline of the PHELIX laser facility at GSI Darmstadt to drive a TNSA (Target Normal Sheath Acceleration) proton source at GSI's Z6 experimental area. At consecutive stages a pulsed solenoid has been applied for beam transport and energy selection via chromatic focusing, as well as a radiofrequency cavity for energy compression of the bunch. This novel laser-driven proton beamline, representing a central experiment of the German national LIGHT collaboration (Laser Ion Generation, Handling and Transport), has been used to create collimated, intense proton bunches at 10 MeV with 2.7% energy spread from the laser-driven source. Also, the feasibility of phase focusing experiments with this setup has been shown and simulations predict peak currents of 10^10 protons/ns at this energy level. Furthermore, first quantitative measurements on the spectral properties of the also present co-moving electrons from such a proton source could be performed and their influence on the protons within the solenoid observed. Finally, permanent magnetic quadrupoles as an alternative first ion collimation system have been investigated experimentally.