Optimizing hot-ion production from a gas-injected washer gun

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a study to maximize the ion temperature of the plasma generated by a gas-injected washer gun. We characterize the gun discharge and the plasma output as a function of the controllable gun parameters. For hydrogen we find a maximum ion temperature of 100 eV with typical densities ranging from 2×1011 to 5×1012 cm−3. A primary feature of the pulsed gun discharge is the observation of large amplitude rf fluctuations on the cathode voltage. The fluctuation amplitude varies with discharge current and with the quantity of injected gas. We show that the scaling of the fluctuation level with gun parameters is in agreement with that expected of an unstable beam-plasma system. We find a linear relation between the square of the fluctuation amplitude and the product of the plasma density times the ion temperature of the plasma output nTi, suggesting a stochastic wave-induced heating mechanism.