Grid-controlled metal ion sources for heavy ion fusion accelerators
A variety of metal ions can be generated using vacuum arcs, but due to the nature of these arcs, the flux generated fluctuates in time. We have successfully employed electrostatically biased grids to control the plasma and to provide a well-behaved, space charge limited ion source. The grid prevents the plasma from entering the extraction gap before the main voltage pulse is applied. The extracte ion is space charge limited, resulting in a constant output current even though the ion flux from the vacuum arc source varies considerably. There are several advantages over conventional sources. For instance, thermionic sources are faced with heating problems for large area configurations, while gas-injection sources cause prefill problems because they take too long to reach equilibrium. We have performed extraction experiments with aluminum and indium arc sources. We have extracted 300 mA of pure Al/sup +/ at 30 kV for 10 ..mu..s. The normalized beam emittance has been measured to be 3 x 10/sup -7/ ..pi..-m-rad.
- Research Organization:
- Institute for Accelerator and Plasma Beam Technology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131
- OSTI ID:
- 5576976
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-860510-
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States), Vol. 152:1; Conference: Symposium on heavy ion inertial fusion, Washington, DC, USA, 27 May 1986
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
ION BEAM FUSION REACTORS
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HEAVY IONS
ION SOURCES
SPACE CHARGE
CHARGED PARTICLES
IONS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS
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