Contrast Experiments of Pig Positive and Negative Hydrogen Ion Sources for Neutron Tubes

Recent studies reported that PIG negative hydrogen ions extraction for neutron tube is superiority to positive hydrogen ions extraction. Present maturing products of neutron tube on market almost use PIG ion source and extract positive hydrogen ions. If negative hydrogen ions extraction can be applied on present products, the combination property will be greatly improved. In this study, a contrast experiment of PIG positive and negative hydrogen ion source for D–T neutron tube is put into effect. The relationships between the current of ion source, the beam current and the voltage extraction are investigated. The experiment results demonstrate that the negative ion extraction has higher yield of neutron for unit target current. We also point out that the ratio of yield to target current is a considerable parameter to reflect the overall performance of neutron tube.