ABSTRACT
The first operation of a laser ion source based on Nd-glass laser on a cyclotron machine was reported by Anan'in. Laser ion sources for Van-de-Graaf accelerators has been employed at the Technical University of Munich and at ITEP-Moscow 1988, and also at the University of Arkansas a laser ion source have been constructed and intensively investigated. The principle of operation of the laser ion source is based on plasma generation by a laser beam focused by a mirror system on a solid movable target. The focused laser light is used to evaporate particles from a target which is made out of the material to be ionized. Laser resonance ionization has been applied to ionize radioactive atoms from thick targets at ISOLDE/CERN. By this method, the resonance ionization of elements with different ionization potentials, such as Yb, Tm and Sn, was investigated.
