| Paper | Title | Page |
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| TUP055 | A Plasma Gun Driver for the SNS Ion Source | 370 |
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The ion source developed for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is an RF-driven, multi-cusp source designed to produce ~ 40 mA of H- with a normalized rms emittance of less than 0.2 π mm mrad. To date, the source has been successfully utilized in the commissioning of the SNS accelerator producing 10–40 mA of H- with duty-factors of ~0.1%. Recently, we found the H- yield from the source could be increased dramatically with the introduction of streaming plasma particles injected into the primary RF plasma from a hemispherical glow discharge chamber located in the rear of the source. In some cases, a 50% increase in the H- beam current was observed. The system also eliminated the need for other plasma ignition systems like a secondary low-power RF generator. This report details the design of the plasma gun as well as the parametric dependence of H- current on source operating conditions. Comparisons are made with and without the gun energized. Finally, an off-line test stand was employed to characterize the plasma current emitted directly from the gun as well as perform lifetime characterization.
SNS is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 for the U. S. Department of Energy. |