Development of a reusable beam profile analyzer for laser accelerated proton beams

At the GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung GmbH, proton beams are generated with the PHELIX laser system through target normal sheath acceleration (TNSA). Within 1 ps, 1013 protons are produced with an exponential energy spectrum up to 50 MeV. For characterisation, the spatial beam profile is currently detected by a stack of radiochromatic films (RCF). These are blued depending on the beam intensity. One disadvantage of RCFs is its one-time usability. Therefore, they shall be replaced by a scintillator array. To ensure the longest possible shelf life of this new detector, the scintillator material used must be very robust against radiation damage. Also a point of current research is the maximal amount of particles, which can be detected separately.