skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Effects on axial momentum spread on the electron-ion two-stream instability in high-intensity ion beams

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/756590· OSTI ID:756590

Use is made of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations to describe the electron-ion two-stream instability driven by the directed axial motion of a high-intensity ion beam propagating through a stationary population of (unwanted) background electrons. The ion beam is treated as continuous in the z-direction, and the electrons are electrostatically confined in the transverse direction by the space-charge potential produced by the excession charge. The analysis is carried out for arbitrary beam intensity, consistent with transverse confinement of the beam particles, and arbitrary fractional charge neutralization by the background electrons. For the case of overlapping step-function ion and electron density profiles, corresponding to monoenergetic electrons and ions in the transverse direction, detailed stability properties are calculated, including the important effects of an axial momentum spread, over a wide range of system parameters for dipole perturbations with azimuthal mode number l=1. The two-stream instability growth rate is found to increase with increasing beam intensity, increasing fractional charge neutralization, and decreasing proximity of the conducting wall. It is shown that Landau damping associated with a modest axial momentum spread of the beam ions and background electrons has a strong stabilizing influence on the instability.

Research Organization:
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ (US)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76CH03073
OSTI ID:
756590
Report Number(s):
PPPL-3449; TRN: US0003099
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 15 Jun 2000
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English