Thermal imaging diagnostics of powerful ion beams

Abstract

Thermal imaging diagnostics of the total energy of a pulsed ion beam and energy-density distribution over the cross section is described. The diagnostics was tested on the TEMП-4M accelerator in the conditions of formation of two pulses: (i) the first plasma-forming pulse is negative (300–500 ns, 100–150 kV) and (ii) the second generated one is positive (150 ns, 250–300 kV). The beam composition includes carbon ions (85%) and protons, and the power density is 0.2–3.0 J/cm2 (for various diodes). The diagnostics was applied in studies of the powerful ion beam, formed by an ion diode with self insulation (two-pulse mode) and external magnetic insulation in the single-pulse mode. The diagnostics was intended to measure the beam energy density in a range of 0.05–5.00 J/cm2 in the absence of erosion and ablation processes on the target. When an infrared camera with a 140 × 160-pixel matrix is used, the spatial resolution is 0.9 mm. The measurement time does not exceed 0.1 s.