Research Activities

The Plasma Physics activities with ion beams follow two lines.
One focuses on pump-probe experimentswhere the laser PHELIX converts thin foils or foams into fully ionized plasma. The plasma conditionsare examined by the ion beam at the UNILAC to address long-standing issues such as energy loss and charge exchange of heavy ions when penetrationg hot plasma.
The other area of investigations uses ion beams from SIS18 for the generation of warm dense matter (WDM). Thermodynamic and transport properties of refractory metals and high-Z materials near the boiling curve are being measured. To enlarge the diagnostic capability in view of FAIR, the development of laser-based soft and hard X-ray sources suited for Thomson scattering has been started.

PHELIX

Since 2008 and in addition to its scientific program, the plasma physics department of GSI runs PHELIX, a user-oriented high-energy laser facility which is open to the international community for combined laser-ion experiments.