LBNL, Berkeley, California
An over-dense microwave driven ion source capable of producing deuterium (or hydrogen) beams at 100-200 mA/cm2 with an atomic fraction > 90% was designed as a part of an Accelerator Driven Neutron Source (ADNS). The ion source was tested with an electrostatic low energy beam transport section (LEBT) and measured emittance data was compared to PBGUNS simulations. In our design a 40 mA D+ beam is produced from a 6 mm diameter aperture using a 60 kV extraction voltage. The LEBT section consists of 5 electrodes arranged to form 2 Einzel lenses that focus the beam into the RFQ entrance. To create the ECR condition, 2 induction coils are used to generate a ~875 Gauss magnetic field on axis inside the source chamber. To prevent HV breakdown in the LEBT, a magnetic field clamp is necessary to minimize the field in this region. The microwave power is matched to the plasma by an autotuner. A significant improvement in the atomic fracion of the beam was achieved by installing a boron nitride liner inside the ion source
LLNL, Livermore, California
LBNL, Berkeley, California
To provide a compact high-brightness heavy-ion beam source for Heavy Ion Fusion, we have performed experiments to study a proposed merging beamlet approach for the injector. We used an RF plasma source to produce the initial beamlets. An extraction current density of 100 mA/cm2 was achieved, and the thermal temperature of the ions was below 1 eV. An array of converging beamlets was used to produce a beam with the envelope radius, convergence, and ellipticity matched to an electrostatic quadrupole channel. Experimental results were in good quantitative agreement with simulation and have demonstrated the feasibility of this concept. The size of a driver-scale injector system using this approach will be several times smaller than one designed using traditional single large-aperture beams. The success of this experiment has possible significant economical and technical impacts on the architecture of HIF drivers.
