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A plasma window (PW) is a device for separating two areas of different pressures while letting particle beams pass with little to no loss. It has been introduced by A. Hershcovitch [J. Appl. Phys. 78, 5283 (1995)JAPIAU0021-897910.1063/1.359704] In the course of this publication, the properties of a PW with apertures of 3.3 mm and 5.0 mm are presented. Especially the link between the pressure properties relevant for applications in accelerator systems and the underlying plasma properties depending on external parameters are presented. As working gas, a 98%Ar-2%H_{2} mixture has been used due to the intense Stark broadening of the H_{β}-line and the well-described Ar characteristics, enabling an accurate electron density and temperature analysis. At the low pressure side around some mbar, high-pressure values reached up to 750 mbar while operating with volume flows between 1 slm and 4 slm (standard liter per minute) and discharge currents ranging from 45 A to 60 A. The achieved ratios between high and low pressure with an active discharge range from 40 to 150. This is an improvement of a factor up to 12 over the performance of an ordinary differential pumping stage of the same geometry. Unique features of the presented PW include simultaneous plasma parameter determination and the absence of ceramic insulators between the cooling plates. Optical analysis reveals no significant damage or wear to the components after an operation time well over 10 h, whereas the cathode needle needs replacement after 5 h.

Hypothetical axions provide a compelling explanation for dark matter and could be emitted from the hot solar interior. The CERN Axion Solar Telescope has been searching for solar axions via their back conversion to x-ray photons in a 9-T 10-m long magnet directed toward the Sun. We report on an extended run with the International Axion Observatory pathfinder detector, doubling the previous exposure time. The detector was operated with a xenon-based gas mixture for part of the new run, providing technical insights for future configurations. No counts were detected in the 95% signal-encircling region during the new run, while 0.75 were expected. The new data improve the axion-photon coupling limit to 5.8×10^{-11}  GeV^{-1} at 95% CL (for m_{a}≲0.02  eV), the most restrictive experimental limit to date.

A novel method to determine the total hydrogen density and, accordingly, a precise plasma temperature in a lowly ionized hydrogen plasma is described. The key to the method is to analyze the energy loss of swift heavy ions interacting with the respective bound and free electrons of the plasma. A slowly developing and lowly ionized hydrogen theta-pinch plasma is prepared. A Boltzmann plot of the hydrogen Balmer series and the Stark broadening of the H_{β} line preliminarily defines the plasma with a free electron density of (1.9±0.1)×10^{16}  cm^{-3} and a free electron temperature of 0.8-1.3 eV. The temperature uncertainty results in a wide hydrogen density, ranging from 2.3×10^{16} to 7.8×10^{18}  cm^{-3}. A 108 MHz pulsed beam of ^{48}Ca^{10+} with a velocity of 3.652  MeV/u is used as a probe to measure the total energy loss of the beam ions. Subtracting the calculated energy loss due to free electrons, the energy loss due to bound electrons is obtained, which linearly depends on the bound electron density. The total hydrogen density is thus determined as (1.9±0.7)×10^{17}  cm^{-3}, and the free electron temperature can be precisely derived as 1.01±0.04  eV. This method should prove useful in many studies, e.g., inertial confinement fusion or warm dense matter.

The CERN Axion Solar Telescope has finished its search for solar axions with (3)He buffer gas, covering the search range 0.64 eV ≲ ma ≲ 1.17 eV. This closes the gap to the cosmological hot dark matter limit and actually overlaps with it. From the absence of excess x rays when the magnet was pointing to the Sun we set a typical upper limit on the axion-photon coupling of gaγ ≲ 3.3 × 10(-10)  GeV(-1) at 95% C.L., with the exact value depending on the pressure setting. Future direct solar axion searches will focus on increasing the sensitivity to smaller values of gaγ, for example by the currently discussed next generation helioscope International AXion Observatory.

The CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) has extended its search for solar axions by using (3)He as a buffer gas. At T=1.8 K this allows for larger pressure settings and hence sensitivity to higher axion masses than our previous measurements with (4)He. With about 1 h of data taking at each of 252 different pressure settings we have scanned the axion mass range 0.39 eV≲m(a)≲0.64 eV. From the absence of excess x rays when the magnet was pointing to the Sun we set a typical upper limit on the axion-photon coupling of g(aγ)≲2.3×10(-10) GeV(-1) at 95% C.L., the exact value depending on the pressure setting. Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov axions are excluded at the upper end of our mass range, the first time ever for any solar axion search. In the future we will extend our search to m(a)≲1.15 eV, comfortably overlapping with cosmological hot dark matter bounds.

High-energy heavy ions are an ideal tool to generate homogeneously excited, extended volumes of nonthermal plasmas. Here, the high-energy loss (dE/dx) and absolute power deposition of heavy ions interacting with matter has been used to pump an ultraviolet laser. A pulsed 70 MeV/u 238U beam with up to 2.5 x 10(9) particles in approximately 100 ns beam bunches was stopped in a 1.2 m long laser cell filled with a 1.6 bar Ar-Kr-F2 mixture (typically 50%:49.9%:0.1%). Laser effect on the 248 nm KrF* excimer transition is clearly demonstrated.

Hypothetical axionlike particles with a two-photon interaction would be produced in the sun by the Primakoff process. In a laboratory magnetic field ("axion helioscope"), they would be transformed into x-rays with energies of a few keV. Using a decommissioned Large Hadron Collider test magnet, the CERN Axion Solar Telescope ran for about 6 months during 2003. The first results from the analysis of these data are presented here. No signal above background was observed, implying an upper limit to the axion-photon coupling g(agamma)<1.16x10(-10) GeV-1 at 95% C.L. for m(a) less, similar 0.02 eV. This limit, assumption-free, is comparable to the limit from stellar energy-loss arguments and considerably more restrictive than any previous experiment over a broad range of axion masses.

Employing a two-dimensional simulation model, this paper presents a suitable design for an experiment to study metallization of hydrogen in a heavy-ion beam imploded multilayered cylindrical target that contains a layer of frozen hydrogen. Such an experiment will be carried out at the upgraded heavy-ion synchrotron facility (SIS-18) at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt by the end of the year 2001. In these calculations we consider a uranium beam that will be available at the upgraded SIS-18. Our calculations show that it may be possible to achieve theoretically predicted physical conditions necessary to create metallic hydrogen in such experiments. These include a density of about 1 g/cm(3), a pressure of 3-5 Mbar, and a temperature of a few 0.1 eV.

A specifically tailored plasma lens could shape a high-energy, heavy-ion beam into the form of a hollow cylinder without loss of beam intensity. It has been experimentally confirmed that both a positive as well as a negative radial gradient of the current density in the active plasma lens can be the underlying principle. Calculations were performed that yield the ideal current density distribution for both cases. A numerical simulation of an experiment with an intense ion beam highlights that the shaping of the beam increases the achievable compression in a lead sample.