Simulating electron clouds in high-current ion accelerators with solenoid focusing

Abstract

Contamination from electrons is a concern for the solenoid-focused ion accelerators being developed for experiments in high-energy density physics (HEDP). These electrons are produced directly by beam ions hitting lattice elements and intercepting diagnostics, or indirectly by ionization of desorbed neutral gas, and they are believed responsible for time dependence of the beam radius, emittance, and focal distance seen on the solenoid transport experiment (STX) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The electrostatic particle-in-cell code WARP has been upgraded to include the physics needed to simulate electron-cloud phenomena. We present preliminary self-consistent simulations of STX experiments suggesting that the observed time dependence of the beam stems from a complicated interaction of beam ions, desorbed neutrals, and electrons.