  We have commenced experiments with intense short pulses of ion beams on the
Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II at Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory, by generating beam spots size with radius r < 1 mm within 2 ns FWHM
and approximately 10^10 ions/pulse. To enable the short pulse durations and
mm-scale focal spot radii, the 1.2 MeV Li+ ion beam is neutralized in a
1.6-meter drift compression section located after the last accelerator magnet.
An 8-Tesla short focal length solenoid compresses the beam in the presence of
the large volume plasma near the end of this section before the target. The
scientific topics to be explored are warm dense matter, the dynamics of
radiation damage in materials, and intense beam and beam-plasma physics
including selected topics of relevance to the development of heavy-ion drivers
for inertial fusion energy. Here we describe the accelerator commissioning and
time-resolved ionoluminescence measurements of yttrium aluminium perovskite
using the fully integrated accelerator and neutralized drift compression
components.
