Source fabrication and lifetime for Li+ ion beams extracted from alumino-silicate sources.

A space-charge-limited beam with current densities (J) exceeding 1 mA/cm(2) have been measured from lithium alumino-silicate ion sources at a temperature of ∼1275 °C. At higher extraction voltages, the source appears to become emission limited with J ≥ 1.5 mA/cm(2), and J increases weakly with the applied voltage. A 6.35 mm diameter source with an alumino-silicate coating, ≤0.25 mm thick, has a measured lifetime of ∼40 h at ∼1275 °C, when pulsed at 0.05 Hz and with pulse length of ∼6 µs each. At this rate, the source lifetime was independent of the actual beam charge extracted due to the loss of neutral atoms at high temperature. The source lifetime increases with the amount of alumino-silicate coated on the emitting surface, and may also be further extended if the temperature is reduced between pulses.

Li+ alumino-silicate ion source development for the neutralized drift compression experiment.

We report results on lithium alumino-silicate ion source development in preparation for warm dense matter heating experiments on the new neutralized drift compression experiment II. The practical limit to the current density for a lithium alumino-silicate source is determined by the maximum operating temperature that the ion source can withstand before running into problems of heat transfer, melting of the alumino-silicate material, and emission lifetime. Using small prototype emitters, at a temperature of ≈1275 °C, a space-charge limited Li(+) beam current density of J ≈1 mA/cm(2) was obtained. The lifetime of the ion source was ≈50 h while pulsing at a rate of 0.033 Hz with a pulse duration of 5-6 µs.

Ion source for neutral beam injection meant for plasma and magnetic field diagnostics.

At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory a diagnostic neutral beam injection system for measuring plasma parameters, flow velocity, and local magnetic field is being developed. The system is designed to have a 90% proton fraction and small divergence with beam current at 5-6 A and a pulse length of approximately 1 s occurring once every 1-2 min. The ion source needs to generate uniform plasma over a large (8 x 5 cm(2)) extraction area. For this application, we have compared rf driven multicusp ion sources operating with either an external or an internal antenna in similar ion source geometry. The ion beam will be made of an array of six sheet-shaped beamlets. The design is optimized using computer simulation programs.