Enhanced Flyer Acceleration by Varying the Ion Beam–Plasma Interaction Field

Abstract

This paper presents a method for enhancing the ablation plasma production and the flyer velocity for flyer acceleration. A significant approach introduced is to optimize the interaction field of the ablation plasma and the Al target. To do so, it is acceptable to adjust the distance of ion beam irradiation. A one-dimensional hydrodynamic model is used in the calculations. The cube-interpolated propagation (CIP) method is used to describe the ablation plasma production and the acceleration mechanism. In the calculations, a single-pulsed ion beam with a total energy density of 120 J/cm2 is used. The interaction field (ion beam irradiation distance) that varies from 50 to 1000 µm is fixed for the calculations. At the interaction field of 50 µm, the flyer velocity of 2 km/s is calculated, while the value of 1.3 km/s is obtained at the distance of 400 µm. The results show that the closer the interaction field (distance of ion beam irradiation), the higher the flyer velocity obtained. In addition, the results reveal that the interaction field directly affects the amount of the ablation plasma produced and the flyer momentum.