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U.S. Department of Energy
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Particle Beam Ionization at High Gas Densities

Multimedia ·
OSTI ID:1668774
In this simulation, an electron beam (blue circles) passes through a mixture of hydrogen and xenon gases that it ionizes, transforming the mixture into a plasma of protons, xenon ions, and electrons. The electron beam’s self-field expels the plasma electrons radially. The ions then undergo a Coulomb explosion under their own self-fields: first the lighter hydrogen ions and later the heavier xenon ions. An external extraction field that is applied between the top and bottom electrodes, and under the right conditions it can move both types of ions through the aperture in the top plate before they expand to a diameter larger than the aperture size. In this case, though, the initial gas densities are too high and the Coulomb field dominates the external field, so the ions are not captured by the aperture in the top plate. (Credit: Jean-Luc Vay and Rémi Lehe, WARP code)
Research Organization:
LBNL (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States))
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI ID:
1668774
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English