Comparison of collective acceleration of ions in a luce diode in residual atmospheres of air, argon and krypton

Abstract

The paper compares the collective acceleration of ions in a Luce diode in residual atmospheres of air, argon and krypton at pressures of 6–156 mPa, evaluating the efficiency of capture of Ar and Kr ions into collective acceleration from their residual atmospheres. At a diode voltage of ∼232 kV, proton energies were 510 ± 38, 619 ± 62 and 567 ± 59 keV for air, argon, and krypton atmospheres, respectively, while the number of protons per shot was approximately 2 and 3 times higher in the argon and krypton residual atmosphere compared to the normal residual atmosphere. This increase in energy also led to a significant increase in the proportion of protons with energies greater than 3.02 MeV - to 1010 per shot on average. It was found that with increasing argon pressure, the diode current noticeably decreases, and with increasing krypton pressure, on the contrary, the diode current noticeably increases, which can be explained by the fact that argon is more neutral than krypton. The efficiency of capture of Ar and Kr ions into collective acceleration from their residual atmospheres was estimated as 0.06 % and 0.19 %, respectively.