High intensity source of polarized negative hydrogen ions with resonant charge-exchange plasma ionizer

The Moscow INR atomic‐beam type source of polarized negative hydrogen ions is described. The production of H− ions is based on resonant charge exchange between polarized thermal hydrogen atoms and D− ions in a deuterium plasma. Improvements in the D− plasma source are outlined. The polarized source produces a pulsed H− beam with the peak current up to 1 mA and pulse duration of 180 μs at repetition rate 10 Hz. The normalized emittance for 90% of the beam particles is 1.8 π mm mrad. The polarization of low energy H− ions was measured to be 0.87±0.02.