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Radio frequency driven multicusp source was set up to run chlorine plasma and the source performance was compared between positive and negative chlorine ion production. A maximum Cl− current density of 45 mA/cm2 was achieved at 2.2 kW of rf power with electron to negative ion ratio of 7 and positive to negative ion ratio of 1.3. 99.8% of the total negative chlorine beam was atomic Cl−. To produce negative boron ions for semiconductor manufacturing applications, a noncesiated, sputtering-type surface production ion source was constructed. An external rf antenna geometry and large LaB6 converter were implemented in the source design. Maximum B2− ion current density of 1 mA/cm2 was achieved at 800 W of rf power and −600 V converter voltage. Total B2− ion current was 1.8 mA.

Use of high mass atomic neutral beams produced from negative ions as drivers for inertial confinement fusion has been suggested recently. Best candidates for the negative ions would be bromine and iodine with sufficiently high mass and electron affinity. These materials require a heated vapor ion source. Chlorine was selected for initial testing because it has similar electron affinity to those of bromine and iodine, and is available in gaseous form. An experiment was set up by the Plasma and Ion Source Technology Group in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to measure achievable current densities and other beam parameters by using a rf driven multicusp ion source [K. N. Leung, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 65, 1165 (1994); Q. Ji et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 73, 822 (2002)]. Current density of 45 mA/cm2 was achieved with 99.5% of the beam as atomic negative chlorine at 2.2 kW of rf power. An electron to negative ion ratio as low as 7 to 1 was observed, while the ratio of positive and negative chlorine ion currents w...

The U.S. Heavy Ion Fusion program has recently commissioned several new experiments. In the High Current Experiment [P. A. Seidl et al., Laser Part. Beams 20, 435 (2003)], a single low-energy beam with driver-scale charge-per-unit-length and space-charge potential is being used to study the limits to transportable current posed by nonlinear fields and secondary atoms, ions, and electrons. The Neutralized Transport Experiment similarly employs a low-energy beam with driver-scale perveance to study final focus of high perveance beams and neutralization for transport in the target chamber. Other scaled experiments—the University of Maryland Electron Ring [P. G. O’Shea et al., accepted for publication in Laser Part. Beams] and the Paul Trap Simulator Experiment [R. C. Davidson, H. Qin, and G. Shvets, Phys. Plasmas 7, 1020 (2000)]—will provide fundamental physics results on processes with longer scale lengths. An experiment to test a new injector concept is also in the design stage. This paper will describe th...

Kapton film is used to image K+ ion beams in the 0.4 to 2 MeV energy range. Dose response is shown to be linear and to follow a simple model for a range of exposures. The measured profiles agree with profiles obtained with a slit scanner. Kapton has excellent spatial resolution, dynamic range, and discrimination against stray low energy and low mass particles.

In a new approach to develop high current beams for heavy ion fusion, beam current at about 0.5 ampere per channel can be obtained by merging an array of high current density beamlets of 5 mA each. We have done computer simulations to study the transport of high current density beamlets and the emittance growth due to this merging process. In our radio frequency (rf) multicusp source experiment, we have produced a cluster of 61 beamlets using minimum gas flow. The current density from a 0.25 cm diameter aperture reached 100 mA/cm2. The normalized 4 rms emittance of 0.0186π mm mrad corresponds to an equivalent ion temperature of 2.08 eV. These results showed that the rf argon plasma source is suitable for producing high current density beamlets that can be merged to form a high current high brightness beam for heavy ion fusion application.

Neutral beams for the next generation tokamaks will be based on multiampere negative ion beams with a beam energy of about 1.0 MeV and pulse lengths of a thousand seconds. High intensity dc beams at these levels of beam energy will require extensive development in electrostatic accelerators. At Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, a two‐module electrostatic quadrupole (ESQ) accelerator was built to accelerate ions to 200 keV. In this experiment, up to 100 mA of H− beam current was obtained from a Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute cesiated volume source using a multiaperture preaccelerator which merged 19 beamlets into a single circular beam at the entrance to the ESQ accelerator. The H− beam was accelerated by the ESQ to accelerate 200 keV without any significant beam loss or emittance growth.

The high power ion beams used in the next generation thermonuclear fusion reactors require high current negative ion beams accelerated to high energy, with high efficiency. One way to meet these requirements is to merge multiple low current density H− beamlets into a single high current beam. The feasibility of a high current merging preaccelerator was demonstrated in this experiment by merging 19 beamlets of H− ions distributed over a circular area 80 mm in diameter from a Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute negative ion source. H− ions were extracted at a current density exceeding 10 mA/cm2 at the ion source which operates at 0.13 Pa (1 mTorr), with a low arc power density (70 V×250 A). Spherically curved grids (with built‐in magnetic electron suppression) were used in the preaccelerator to focus the extracted beamlets into a single 104 mA, 100 keV beam. The merged beam has a diameter of 23 mm and a converging angle of ±30 mrad at the beam envelope. The rms emittance of the 104 mA merging beam was 1.00 π mrad cm, which is a condition acceptable to the electrostatic quadropole accelerator for further acceleration.

Presently the Heavy Ion Fusion Virtual National Laboratory is researching ion sources and injector concepts to understand how to optimize beam brightness over a range of currents (50–2000 mA argon equivalent). One concept initially accelerates millimeter size, milliamp beamlets to 1 MeV before merging them into centimeter size, ampere beams. Computer simulations have shown the final brightness of the merged beams is dominated by the emittance growth of the merging process, as long as the beamlets’ ion temperature is below a few electron volts. Thus, a radio frequency multicusp source capable of high current density can produce beams with better brightness compared to ones extracted from a colder source with a large aperture and lower current density. Initial experiments with such a source have successfully demonstrated simultaneously high current density, ∼100 mA/cm2, and fast turn on, ∼1 μs. Results from these experiments are presented as well as progress and plans for the next set of experiments for the...

Heavy ion beam inertial fusion driver concepts depend on the availability and performance of high-brightness high-current ion sources. Surface ionization sources have relatively low current density but high brightness because of the low temperature of the emitted ions. We have measured the beam profiles at the exit of the injector diode, and compared the measured profiles with EGUN and WARP-3D predictions. Spherical aberrations are significant in this large aspect ratio diode. We discuss the measured and calculated beam size and beam profiles, the effect of aberrations, quality of vacuum, and secondary electron distributions on the beam profile.

In testing a cesiated volume‐production negative ion source, we have obtained 75 mA of H− beam current in a 270 ms pulse length delivered downstream of the 87 keV preaccelerator. Optimum pressure in the source was less than 8 mT and the electron‐to‐ion ratio in the beam was less than 4. With future improvements in the electron trap, it is anticipated that higher H− current can be obtained by operating with a higher discharge power and a lower plasma electrode bias.

Based on recent experimental results made on the large and small multicusp volume H− sources, a new multicusp source has been designed to generate high‐brightness H− or D− beams for high duty factor or dc operations. Cesium will be introduced into the source plasma to enhance the H− output current. Arrangements for reducing the electrons as well as capturing them in the preaccelerator electrodes will be incorporated into the new source geometry.

A D− surface‐conversion source using a solid barium converter is designed for steady‐state operation to produce 200 mA of D−. A similar ion source of twice the size as the one discussed here will meet the requirements set by the present US‐ITER neutral beam injector design. Among the possible types of ion sources being considered for the US‐ITER neutral beam design, the barium converter surface‐conversion source is the only kind that does not use cesium in the discharge. This absence of cesium will minimize the number of accelerator breakdowns.

A JAERI (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute)negative ion source was tested at LBL (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) as part of the U.S.–Japan Fusion Cooperation Program. By varying the strength of the magnetic filter from 450 to 930 G cm, we compared production, transport, and extraction of the negative ions. The maximum current densities, which were obtained at the corresponding optimum filter strength for each gas species, were 10.4 mA/cm2 for H− and 8.4 mA/cm2 for D− at arc discharges of 40 kW. The ratio of the ion current densities (JD−/JH−) is about 0.8, which is higher than 1/(2)1/2 . The electron to negative ion ratio was 13 for hydrogen and 38 for deuterium at the corresponding optimum filter strength. The higher ratio in deuterium is probably due to higher space potential of deuterium plasma by a few volts.

In testing a multicusp volume‐production H− ion source (20 cm diameter, 23 cm long), we optimized the gas pressure, the plasma electrode bias potential, and the magnetic filter. At the optimum pressure of 9 mTorr, the H− beam output increased linearly with discharge power. The maximum H− beam, measured with a current transformer downstream of the accelerator, was 100 mA while using a 6.67‐cm2 aperture. Presently we are limited by overheating of the cathodes by the plasma ions. Under similar discharge conditions the maximum H− current density was found to vary as a−0.7, where a is the aperture radius. Results from emittance measurements showed that the effective H− ion temperature increased with a for a>0.8 cm. Thus, the brightness of the beam decreased with increasing aperture radius. Operating the source with cesium would increase the H− output; however, our accelerator must be improved to avoid breakdowns caused by the cesium contamination.

A space-charge-limited beam with current densities (J) exceeding 1 mA/cm(2) have been measured from lithium alumino-silicate ion sources at a temperature of ∼1275 °C. At higher extraction voltages, the source appears to become emission limited with J ≥ 1.5 mA/cm(2), and J increases weakly with the applied voltage. A 6.35 mm diameter source with an alumino-silicate coating, ≤0.25 mm thick, has a measured lifetime of ∼40 h at ∼1275 °C, when pulsed at 0.05 Hz and with pulse length of ∼6 μs each. At this rate, the source lifetime was independent of the actual beam charge extracted due to the loss of neutral atoms at high temperature. The source lifetime increases with the amount of alumino-silicate coated on the emitting surface, and may also be further extended if the temperature is reduced between pulses.

Intense beams of heavy ions are well suited for heating matter to regimes of emerging interest. A new facility, NDCX-II, will enable studies of warm dense matter at ∼1 eV and near-solid density, and of heavy-ion inertial fusion target physics relevant to electric power production. For these applications the beam must deposit its energy rapidly, before the target can expand significantly. To form such pulses, ion beams are temporally compressed in neutralizing plasma; current amplification factors of ∼50–100 are routinely obtained on the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment (NDCX) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In the NDCX-II physics design, an initial non-neutralized compression renders the pulse short enough that existing high-voltage pulsed power can be employed. This compression is first halted and then reversed by the beam’s longitudinal space-charge field. Downstream induction cells provide acceleration and impose the head-to-tail velocity gradient that leads to the final neutraliz...

A dual-energy tandem-type gamma generator has been developed at E. O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. The tandem accelerator geometry allows higher energy nuclear reactions to be reached, thereby allowing more flexible generation of MeV-energy gammas for active interrogation applications. Both positively charged ions and atoms of hydrogen are created from negative ions via a gas stripper. In this paper, we show first results of the working tandem-based gamma generator and that a gas stripper can be utilized in a compact source design. Preliminary results of monoenergetic gamma production are shown.

The design and operation of the surface‐conversion H− ion source and the 80‐keV preaccelerator are discussed. Both the source and the preaccelerator, together with the transverse field focusing (TFF) matching and pumping beam transport section (presently being tested), will be parts of a negative‐ion‐based neutral beam line. Results from testing the source and preaccelerator have shown that the system can accelerate more than 1 A of H− ions at 80 keV continuously; the preaccelerator operates at an optimum perveance which matches the one predicted by WOLF code computer simulation. Deconditioning of the preaccelerator due to cesium contamination is a critical problem. A method has been developed to cope with this problem.