Investigating two prototype detector systems for spectrometry of polyenergetic proton bunches

This thesis lies within the context of laser ion acceleration. Ions are accelerated by focusing a high intensity laser pulse onto a target. Laser accelerated ions show different characteristics from conventionally accelerated ions, namely a broad energy spectrum, short bunch durations, and high fluxes. For any kind of potential application of laser accelerated ions, such as laser-driven proton therapy, a precise knowledge of their spectrum is required. This work investigates two prototypes of detection systems for the reconstruction of polyenergetic proton spectra. The first system is a scintillator stack consisting of nine layers of polysiloxane coupled to a CMOS detector. In the second system a Timepix detector is irradiated edge-on. Both devices have been characterized at the Tandem accelerator in Garching, near Munich. Different polyenergetic proton beams have been generated from the monoenergetic proton beams by using dedicated passive filters. Different methods to obtain the energy spectra of these polyenergetic beams from the acquired signals have been tested. The results show that a first qualitative reconstruction is possible. However, further work still needs to be done for a quantitative and more precise reconstruction.