Laser photodetachment neutraliser for negative ion beams

Abstract: We outline a speculative design for a photodetachment neutraliser for a negative ion neutral beam system, with neutralisation efficiency of 95% or more. The practical difficulties are enormous. The ion beam must pass through an optical cavity capable of reflecting the light many times. For 500 reflections, the laser optical power output ∼800kW, giving circulating power ∼400MW. All sources of light loss combined need to be kept to 0.2% or less per pass. The losses due to photodetachment itself, and due to Thomson scattering in the beam plasma are negligible. A key task is to maintain the reflectance of the mirrors above 99.97% for long periods of operation, protecting all the components from thermal and neutron damage, and from caesium, sputtered atoms and other contamination. A diode-pumped Nd-doped YAG laser can have overall electrical-to-light (“wall-plug”) efficiency up to 25%. A DEMO concept reactor such as the EU Power Plant Conceptual Study (PPCS) Model B requires 270MW heating power. If this is all provided by neutral beams, then a laser neutraliser might reduce the electrical power consumption for this from 900MW to 520MW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]