Self-pinched transport of intense ion beams
- and others
Electron beams with substantial net currents have been routinely propagated in the self-pinched mode for the past two decades. However, as the physics of gas breakdown and beam neutralization is different for ion beams, previous predictions indicated insufficient net current for pinching so that ion beam self-pinched transport (SPT) was assumed impossible. Nevertheless, recent numerical simulations using the IPROP code have suggested that ion SPT is possible. These results have prompted initial experiments to investigate SPT of ion beams. A 100-kA, 1.2-MeV, 3-cm-radius proton beam, generated on the Gamble II pulsed-power accelerator at NRL, has been injected into helium in the 30- to 250-mTorr regime to study this phenomenon. Evidence of self-pinched ion beam transport was observed in the 35- to 80-mTorr SPT pressure window predicted by IPROP. Measured signals from a time- and space-resolved scattered proton diagnostic and a time-integrated Li(Cu) nuclear activation diagnostic, both of which measure protons striking a 10-cm diameter target 50 cm into the transport region, are significantly larger in this pressure window than expected for ballistic transport. These results are consistent with significant self-magnetic fields and self-pinching of the ion beam. On the other hand, time-integrated signals from these same two diagnostics are consistent with ballistic transport at pressures above and below the SPT window. Interferometric electron line-density measurements, acquired during beam injection into the helium gas, show insignificant ionization below 35 mTorr, a rapidly rising ionization fraction with pressure in the SPT window, and a plateau in ionization fraction at about 2% for pressures above 80 mTorr. These and other results are consistent with the physical picture for SPT. IPROP simulations, which closely model the Gamble II experimental conditions, produce results that are in qualitative agreement with the experimental results. The advantages of SPT for beam transport in the reactor chamber of a heavy-ion-driven inertial-confinement-fusion energy system will also be discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Naval Research Lab., Washington, DC (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy
- OSTI ID:
- 20067601
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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