Longitudinal beam dynamics in heavy ion fusion driver beams

Abstract

Summary form only given. In order to focus a heavy ion beam onto an inertial confinement fusion target, the amount of longitudinal momentum spread in the beam must be kept small. One cause of longitudinal momentum spread is errors in the external electric fields needed to confine the beam axially ("ear" fields). These errors can be amplified by a longitudinal instability which is based on the same principle as "resistive wall" amplifiers. In a heavy ion fusion driver, the impedance which drives this instability comes from the induction acceleration modules. The authors are using the electrostatic, axisymmetric WARPrz PIC (particle-in-cell) code to study the longitudinal dynamics of these beams. In WARPrz, the impedance of the closely-spaced modules is modeled as a continuum of resistors and capacitors in parallel. This code is being used to study perturbations due to errors in the acceleration and ear fields and the growth of these perturbations due to the instability.