Intense proton beam focusing experiments on PBFA-I

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5841520

Maenchen, J; Ruiz, C L; Mehlhorn, T A; Woodworth, J R; Renk, T J; Slutz, S A; Sweeney, M A; Leeper, R J; Stygar, W A; Olsen, J N

Significant improvements have been made recently in the generation and focusing of intense proton beams on the PBFA-I accelerator using a magnetically-insulated ion diode. Ions are accelerated from a 15-cm radius cylindrical flashover anode plasma across a 6.5-mm vacuum gap to a virtual cathode electron cloud contained by a 15-KG vertical field, then travel radially inward toward a common axial focal spot. Numerous conditions must be met simultaneously to achieve a high focal intensity. These include accelerator symmetry, power flow coupling into the diode, prompt generation of the anode plasma, acceleration of the proton component of the anode plasma, beam aiming control and stability, transport, and coupling of the intense proton beam into a central target. We have studied these physical requirements and developed methods of addressing these issues. Successful applications of our improved understanding during the past year have (a) doubled the accelerator power and energy coupled into the diode structure (10 TW and 300 kJ), (b) halved the anode plasma initiation delay, (c) reduced the ion beam space charge divergence, and (d) produced improved proton focal intensities of voltages above 1.5 MV.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5841520
• Report Number(s): SAND-85-2738C; CONF-860665-1; ON: DE86010986
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700208* -- Fusion Power Plant Technology-- Inertial Confinement Technology
ACCELERATION
ACCELERATORS
ANODES
BEAMS
ELECTRODES
FOCUSING
ION SOURCES
NUCLEON BEAMS
PARTICLE BEAM FUSION ACCELERATOR
PARTICLE BEAMS
PROTON BEAMS
SYMMETRY