Experimental study of collective acceleration of light and heavy ions from a localized gas cloud
An experimental investigation into the collective acceleration of various gaseous atoms (H, D, He, N, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) is presented. A localized gas cloud is formed using a fast rise puff valve immediately downstream of an intense relativistic electron beam diode. The diode consists of a tungsten needle cathode and a stainless steel anode with a hole on axis. The diode is driven by an electron beam generator system consisting of a Marx generator, Blumlein line, and transmission line transformer. It produces a 1.5 MV, 35 kA, 30 ns FWHM electrical pulse measured at the diode. The resulting electron beam has nu/..gamma.. approx. 1 and is about six times the vacuum space charge limiting current in the downstream drift chamber. Ions are produced during the impact of the electron beam with the gas cloud and are accelerated to high energy by collective effects associated with the electron beam space charge. Ion energy diagnostics include fast neutron counting, nuclear activation of stacked foils, measurement of time of flight using direct intercept current collector probes, and range/energy analysis of nuclear track plates. The principal result of the experiments was that all ion species were accelerated to a maximum velocity of 0.1c, corresponding to an energy of 4.7 MeV/nucleon. Energy spectra obtained from stacked foil activation for accelerated hydrogen and deuterium were found to be approximately exponential in character.
- Research Organization:
- Maryland Univ., College Park (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5490233
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Molecular & Chemical Physics-- Beams & their Reactions
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCELERATION
ATOM COLLISIONS
BEAMS
CHARGED PARTICLES
COLLISIONS
DIODE TUBES
ELECTRON BEAMS
ELECTRON COLLISIONS
ELECTRON TUBES
ELECTRON-ATOM COLLISIONS
ENERGY SPECTRA
IONIZATION
IONS
LEPTON BEAMS
PARTICLE BEAMS
SPECTRA