Olli Tarvainen

Invited Article: Electric solar wind sail: Toward test missions

The electric solar wind sail (E-sail) is a space propulsion concept that uses the natural solar wind dynamic pressure for producing spacecraft thrust. In its baseline form, the E-sail consists of a number of long, thin, conducting, and centrifugally stretched tethers, which are kept in a high positive potential by an onboard electron gun. The concept gains its efficiency from the fact that the effective sail area, i.e., the potential structure of the tethers, can be millions of times larger than the physical area of the thin tethers wires, which offsets the fact that the dynamic pressure of the solar wind is very weak. Indeed, according to the most recent published estimates, an E-sail of 1 N thrust and 100 kg mass could be built in the rather near future, providing a revolutionary level of propulsive performance (specific acceleration) for travel in the solar system. Here we give a review of the ongoing technical development work of the E-sail, covering tether construction, overall mechanical design alternatives, guidance and navigation strategies, and dynamical and orbital simulations.

IBSIMU: A three-dimensional simulation software for charged particle optics

A general-purpose three-dimensional (3D) simulation code IBSIMU for charged particle optics with space charge is under development at JYFL. The code was originally developed for designing a slit-beam plasma extraction and nanosecond scale chopping for pulsed neutron generator, but has been developed further and has been used for many applications. The code features a nonlinear FDM Poissons equation solver based on fast stabilized biconjugate gradient method with ILU0 preconditioner for solving electrostatic fields. A generally accepted nonlinear plasma model is used for plasma extraction. Magnetic fields can be imported to the simulations from other programs. The particle trajectories are solved using adaptive Runge-Kutta method. Steady-state and time-dependent problems can be modeled in cylindrical coordinates, two-dimensional (slit) geometry, or full 3D. The code is used via C++ programming language for versatility but it features an interactive easy-to-use postprocessing tool for diagnosing fields and particle trajectories. The open source distribution and public documentation make the code well suited for scientific use. IBSIMU has been used for modeling the 14 GHz ECR ion source extraction and for designing a four-electrode extraction for a 2.45 GHz microwave ion source at Jyväskylä. A grid extraction has also been designed for producing large uniform beam for creating conditions similar to solar wind. The code has also been used to design a H(-) extraction with electron dumping for the Cyclotron Institute of Texas A&M University.

Beam current oscillations driven by cyclotron instabilities in a minimum-Belectron cyclotron resonance ion source plasma

Experimental observation of cyclotron instabilities in a minimum-B confined electron cyclotron resonance ion source plasma is reported. The instabilities are associated with strong microwave emission and a burst of energetic electrons escaping the plasma, and explain the periodic ms-scale oscillation of the extracted beam currents. Such non-linear effects are detrimental for the confinement of highly charged ions due to plasma perturbations at shorter periodic intervals in comparison with their production time. It is shown that the repetition rate of the periodic instabilities in oxygen plasmas increases with increasing magnetic field strength and microwave power and decreases with increasing neutral gas pressure, the magnetic field strength being the most critical parameter. The occurrence of plasma turbulence is demonstrated to restrict the parameter space available for the optimization of extracted currents of highly charged ions.

A new plasma potential measurement instrument for plasma ion sources

A very efficient and fast instrument to measure the plasma potential of ion sources has been developed at the Department of Physics, University of Jyvaskyla (JYFL). The operating principle of this novel instrument is to apply a decelerating voltage into a mesh located in the beamline of the ion source. The plasma potential is determined by measuring the current at the grounded electrode situated behind the mesh as a function of the voltage. In this article, we will introduce the instrument and the first results. In the experiments, the instrument was connected to the beamline of the JYFL 6.4 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source. The plasma potential was measured with different source conditions and it was observed to vary between 30–65 V. The plasma potential tended to increase as the microwave power, or the gas feed rate, was increased. These results are consistent with earlier observations and estimations. It was also noticed that the value of the plasma potential changed when the negative voltag...

High current proton beams production at Simple Mirror Ion Source 37

This paper presents the latest results of high current proton beam production at Simple Mirror Ion Source (SMIS) 37 facility at the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP RAS). In this experimental setup, the plasma is created and the electrons are heated by 37.5 GHz gyrotron radiation with power up to 100 kW in a simple mirror trap fulfilling the ECR condition. Latest experiments at SMIS 37 were performed using a single-aperture two-electrode extraction system. Proton beams with currents up to 450 mA at high voltages below 45 kV were obtained. The maximum beam current density was measured to be 600 mA/cm(2). A possibility of further improvement through the development of an advanced extraction system is discussed.

High current proton source based on ECR discharge sustained by 37.5 GHz gyrotron radiation

Formation of hydrogen ion beams with high intensity and low transverse emittance is one of the key challenges in accelerator technology. Present work is devoted to experimental investigation of proton beam production from dense plasma (Ne > 1013 cm−3) of an ECR discharge sustained by 37.5 GHz, 100 kW gyrotron radiation at SMIS 37 facility at IAP RAS. The anticipated advantages of the SMIS 37 gasdynamic ion source over the current state-of-the-art proton source technology based on 2.45 GHz hydrogen discharges are described. Experimental result obtained with different extraction configurations i.e. single- and multi-aperture systems are presented. It was demonstrated that ultra bright proton beam with approximately 4.5 mA current and 0.03 πmmmrad normalized emittance can be produced with the single-aperture (1 mm in diameter) extraction, the corresponding brightness being 5 A/(πmmmrad)2. For production of high current beams a multi-aperture extractor was used resulting to a record of 200 mA / 1.1 πmmmrad normalized emittance proton beam. The species fraction i.e. the ratio of H+ to H2+ current was recorded to be > 90 % for all extraction systems. A possibility of further enhancement of the beam parameters by improvements of the extraction system and its power supply is discussed.

Effect of electron cyclotron resonance ion source frequency tuning on ion beam intensity and quality at Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä

Ion beam intensity and quality have a crucial effect on the operation efficiency of the accelerator facilities. This paper presents the investigations on the ion beam intensity and quality after the mass separation performed with the Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä 14 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source by sweeping the microwave in the 14.05-14.13 GHz range. In many cases a clear variation in the ion beam intensity and quality as a function of the frequency was observed. The effect of frequency tuning increased with the charge state. In addition, clear changes in the beam structure seen with the beam viewer were observed. The results confirmed that frequency tuning can have a remarkable effect on ion beam intensity and quality especially in the case of highly charged ion beams. The examples presented here represent the typical charge state behavior observed during the measurements.

Limitations of electron cyclotron resonance ion source performances set by kinetic plasma instabilities

Electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) plasmas are prone to kinetic instabilities due to anisotropy of the electron energy distribution function stemming from the resonant nature of the electron heating process. Electron cyclotron plasma instabilities are related to non-linear interaction between plasma waves and energetic electrons resulting to strong microwave emission and a burst of energetic electrons escaping the plasma, and explain the periodic oscillations of the extracted beam currents observed in several laboratories. It is demonstrated with a minimum-B 14 GHz ECRIS operating on helium, oxygen, and argon plasmas that kinetic instabilities restrict the parameter space available for the optimization of high charge state ion currents. The most critical parameter in terms of plasma stability is the strength of the solenoid magnetic field. It is demonstrated that due to the instabilities the optimum Bmin-field in single frequency heating mode is often ≤0.8BECR, which is the value suggested by the semiempirical scaling laws guiding the design of modern ECRISs. It is argued that the effect can be attributed not only to the absolute magnitude of the magnetic field but also to the variation of the average magnetic field gradient on the resonance surface.

Plasma breakdown diagnostics with the biased disc of electron cyclotron resonance ion source

The electron cyclotron resonance ion sources at the JYFL (University of Jyvaskyla, Department of Physics) accelerator laboratory have been operated in pulsed mode to study the time-resolved current signal from the biased discs of the ion sources. The purpose of the experiments is to gain an understanding of the ion source parameters affecting the time required for the transition from neutral gas to plasma. It was observed that the plasma breakdown time depends strongly on the neutral gas density, gas species and density of seed electrons. In particular, it was observed that a low power microwave signal at secondary frequency makes the breakdown time virtually independent of the neutral gas density. The results can be utilized for operation of ECR ion sources in the so-called preglow mode. A simple qualitative model, which is in good agreement with the experiments, has been developed to interpret the results.

Studies of plasma breakdown and electron heating on a 14?GHz ECR ion source through measurement of plasma bremsstrahlung

Temporal evolution of plasma bremsstrahlung emitted by a 14?GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) operated in pulsed mode is presented in the energy range 1.5?400?keV with 100??s resolution. Such a high temporal resolution together with this energy range has never been measured before with an ECRIS. Data are presented as a function of microwave power, neutral gas pressure, magnetic field configuration and seed electron density. The saturation time of the bremsstrahlung count rate is almost independent of the photon energy up to 100?keV and exhibits similar characteristics with the neutral gas balance. The average photon energy during the plasma breakdown is significantly higher than that during the steady state and depends strongly on the density of seed electrons. The results are consistent with a theoretical model describing the evolution of the electron energy distribution function during the preglow transient.