Generation and focusing of high-power ion beams in a magnetically insulated diode with applied B field

Abstract

The results of high-power ion beam (HPIB) generation and in the magnetically insulated diode (MID) installed on a 3 × 1010-W nanosecond accelerator are given. The possibility of efficient HPIB ballistic focusing with the use of the preformed plasma in the HPIB transport region was demonstrated.Several new diagnostics (spring pendulum and acoustic probe) were used to measure the plasma ablation pressure during the impact of the HPIB with the target.The highest degree of HPIB focusing attained during the experiments with spherical geometries of the diode electrodes was equal to 60. The ablation average pressures measured by the spring pendulum gave several kilobars for 8–10 kA/cm2 of HPIB density. The peak pressure measured by acoustic probes attained tens of kilobars for the same HPIB current amplitudes.