Inertial Fusion with Low Energy Heavy Ions

Abstract

High energy heavy ions have been under study for inertial fusion applications for some time. This paper explores the possibility of using heavy ions with energies less than 1 MeV as compared to the usual heavy ion fusion approach of using multi-GeV beams. The author's proposed approach is to produce such a lowenergy heavy ion beam in a spherically focused array using time-of-flight bunching and to achieve high power density at the target by accelerating a sufficiently bright beam to the required energies. The MEQALAC (Multipole Electrostatic Array Linear Accelerator) concept is mentioned as a suitable facility for these acceleration requirements. Various beam parameters and conditions are discussed, such as transverse temperature, current density, convergence density, profile, momentum transfer, ion source requirements, brightness and compression, which are necessary to the achievement of inertial fusion using a low-energy ion beam. Zeolites, thallium halides, xenon and hydrogen are mentioned as candidate ion source materials. A feature of low energy heavy ion beams as compared with conventional heavy ion fusion is that the ion velocity is slow compared with either background plasma electron velocities or orbital electron velocities. The usefulness of these distinctions is stated and the need is stressed for more computerizedmore » simulation in order to uncover more completely the detail work required in low-energy heavy ion fusion.« less