Abstract
Advanced plasma flow simulations of cathodic-arc and ferroelectric plasma sources for neutralized drift compression experiments
Highlights
Current compression of space-charge-dominated ion beams for warm dense matter and heavy ion fusion applications can be achieved by imposing an axial velocity tilt onto the beam across the acceleration gap of a linear induction accelerator, and subsequently allowing it to pass through a drift length filled with high-density plasma
In support of experimental efforts on the neutralized drift compression experiment (NDCX), large-space-scale and long-time-scale numerical PIC simulations have been executed in order to study the spatial and temporal evolution of the plasma flow from two different types of sources used in the laboratory, since they were responsible for the achieved degree of beam neutralization within the drift length
The simulations of plasma injection into the NDCX device have allowed evaluation of realistic parameters achieved in the experiments, so they can be employed in more sophisticated compression simulations, which previously assumed constant plasma density and temperature profiles and neglected the dynamical nature of the background plasma
Summary
Current compression of space-charge-dominated ion beams for warm dense matter and heavy ion fusion applications can be achieved by imposing an axial velocity tilt onto the beam across the acceleration gap of a linear induction accelerator, and subsequently allowing it to pass through a drift length filled with high-density plasma. The background plasma in the drift chamber for beam transport and compression experiments on NDCX is presently created using filtered cathodic-arc and barium titanate (BaTiO3 ) ferroelectric plasma sources. In order to increase the understanding of techniques for creating plasma columns in beam compression experiments, assess the spatial and temporal evolution of the plasma profiles in the drift region, and provide comparisons with measurements, both types of sources are modeled in large-space-scale and long-time-scale particle-incell (PIC) simulations [11]. The high-current cathodic-arc source is a good choice for providing neutralizing plasma in experiments because a negligible fraction of neutral atoms and molecules will exist in the drift region. End of the experiment (relative to the direction of beam propagation) and positioned to face the ‘‘upstream’’ direc-
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