Generation of an intense pulsed heavy-ion beam by aBy-type, magnetically insulated ion diode with an active ion source

Abstract

A new type of a pulsed heavy-ion beam diode with a new configuration of the acceleration gap and an active ion source of gas puff plasma gun was developed. With the plasma gun, nitrogen plasma was produced and injected into the acceleration gap of the diode. The ion diode was operated at a diode voltage of about 200 kV, a diode current of about 2.0 kA and a pulse duration of about 150 ns. An ion beam with an ion current density of about 13 A cm−2 was obtained 55 mm downstream from the anode. From measurements with the Thomson parabola spectrometer we found that N+ and N2+ beams of 60–300 keV energy were accelerated with proton impurities of 60–150 keV energy. The purity of the beam was estimated to be 87%. To generate metallic ions, a vacuum arc plasma gun was developed and an aluminium plasma with an ion current density of 8 A cm −2 was obtained.