First Demonstration of Laser-Assisted Charge Exchange for Microsecond Duration H^{-} Beams

This Letter reports on the first demonstration of laser-assisted H^{-} charge exchange for microsecond duration H^{-} beam pulses. Laser-assisted charge exchange injection is a breakthrough technology that overcomes long-standing limitations associated with the traditional method of producing high intensity, time structured beams of protons in accelerators via the use of carbon foils for charge exchange injection. The central theme of this experiment is the demonstration of novel techniques that reduce the laser power requirement to allow high efficiency stripping of microsecond duration beams with commercial laser technology.