Development of a single-shot-imaging thin film for an online Thomson parabola spectrometer

A single-shot-imaging thin scintillator film was developed for an online Thomson parabola (TP) spectrometer and the first analysis of laser accelerated ions, using the online TP spectrometer, was demonstrated at the JAEA-Kansai Advanced Relativistic Engineering Laser System (J-KAREN). An energy spectrum of ~4.0 MeV protons is obtained using only this imaging film without the need of a microchannel plate that is typically utilized in online ion analyses. A general-purpose Monte Carlo particle and heavy ion-transport code system, which consists of various quantum dynamics models, was used for the prediction of the luminescent properties of the scintillator. The simulation can reasonably predict not only the ion trajectories detected by the spectrometer, but also luminescence properties.