Charged particle dynamics in the acceleration gap of the PBFA II ion diode

Conference · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994

OSTI ID:10175969

Bailey, J E; Carlson, A L; Filuk, A B ^[1]

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1. and others

We are improving the understanding of pulsed-power-driven ion diodes using measurements of the charged particle distributions in the diode anode-cathode (AK) gap. We measure the time - and space-resolved electric field in the AK gap using Stark-shifted Li I 2s-2p emission. The ion density in the gap is determined from the electric field profile and the ion current density. The electron density is inferred by subtracting the net charge density, obtained from the derivative of the electric field profile, from the ion density. The measured electric field and charged particle distributions are compared with results from QUICKSILVER, a 3D particle-in-cell computer code. The comparison validates the fundamental concept of electron build-up in the AK gap. However, the PBFA II diode exhibits considerably richer physics than presently contained in the simulation, suggesting improvements both to the experiments and to our understanding of ion diode physics.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 10175969
• Report Number(s): SAND--93-3837C; CONF-940634--15; ON: DE94017347; BR: GB0103012
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
430301
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700411
CHARGE DISTRIBUTION
CHARGED PARTICLES
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRON DENSITY
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT DEVICES
ION SOURCES
PARTICLE BEAM FUSION ACCELERATOR