On performance capacity of plasma optical mass separator

Abstract

In the magnetic barrier of the azimuthator of the POMS-E-3 plasma optical mass separator, a 20–40 times decrease in the ion flux has been observed. Such a phenomenon deems the process of separation of a multi-component ion beam into elements inefficient. Upon conducting an in-depth theoretical analysis of the problem regarding the passage of the ion stream across the magnetic barrier while considering the walls and in the absence of those, it has been concluded that the problem has a unique steady-state solution allowing for the ions to pass at any values of magnetic field induction, regardless of the density and thermal dispersion in the incoming ion beam. The maximum value of the ion density at the output of the magnetic barrier is estimated as n∞∼β1πW0e2Δ2, where W0 stands for the ion energy at the input of the magnetic barrier and Δ equals the length of the magnetic barrier, while e signifies the electron charge and β varies from 1/9 to 1.