P.A. Seidl

Simulating Electron Clouds in Heavy-Ion Accelerators

Contaminating clouds of electrons are a concern for most accelerators of positively charged particles, but there are some unique aspects of heavy-ion accelerators for fusion and high-energy density physics which make modeling such clouds especially challenging. In particular, self-consistent electron and ion simulation is required, including a particle advance scheme which can follow electrons in regions where electrons are strongly magnetized, weakly magnetized, and unmagnetized. The approach to such self-consistency is described, and in particular a scheme for interpolating between full-orbit (Boris) and drift-kinetic particle pushes that enables electron time steps long compared to the typical gyroperiod in the magnets. Tests and applications are presented: simulation of electron clouds produced by three different kinds of sources indicates the sensitivity of the cloud shape to the nature of the source; first-of-a-kind self-consistent simulation of electron-cloud experiments on the high-current experim...

Ion-beam-driven warm dense matter experiments

Author(s): Bieniosek, F.M.; Ni, P.; Leitner, M.; Roy, P.; More, R.; Barnard, J.J.; Covo, M. Kireeff; Molvik, A.W.; Yoneda, H.

Overview of US heavy ion fusion research

Significant experimental and theoretical progress has been made in the U.S. heavy ion fusion program on high-current sources, injectors, transport, final focusing, chambers and targets for high energy density physics (HEDP) and inertial fusion energy (IFE) driven by induction linac accelerators. One focus of present research is the beam physics associated with quadrupole focusing of intense, space-charge dominated heavy-ion beams, including gas and electron cloud effects at high currents, and the study of long-distance-propagation effects such as emittance growth due to field errors in scaled experiments. A second area of emphasis in present research is the introduction of background plasma to neutralize the space charge of intense heavy ion beams and assist in focusing the beams to a small spot size. In the near future, research will continue in the above areas, and a new area of emphasis will be to explore the physics of neutralized beam compression and focusing to high intensities required to heat targets to high energy density conditions as well as for inertial fusion energy.

Progress in heavy ion fusion research

The U.S. Heavy Ion Fusion program has recently commissioned several new experiments. In the High Current Experiment [P. A. Seidl et al., Laser Part. Beams 20, 435 (2003)], a single low-energy beam with driver-scale charge-per-unit-length and space-charge potential is being used to study the limits to transportable current posed by nonlinear fields and secondary atoms, ions, and electrons. The Neutralized Transport Experiment similarly employs a low-energy beam with driver-scale perveance to study final focus of high perveance beams and neutralization for transport in the target chamber. Other scaled experiments—the University of Maryland Electron Ring [P. G. O’Shea et al., accepted for publication in Laser Part. Beams] and the Paul Trap Simulator Experiment [R. C. Davidson, H. Qin, and G. Shvets, Phys. Plasmas 7, 1020 (2000)]—will provide fundamental physics results on processes with longer scale lengths. An experiment to test a new injector concept is also in the design stage. This paper will describe th...

A 1.8-MeV K + injector for the high current beam transport experiment

For the High Current Beam Transport Experiment (HCX) at LBNL, an injector is required to deliver up to 1.8 MV of 0.6 A K{sup +} beam with an emittance of {approx}1 p-mm-mrad. We have successfully operated a 10-cm diameter surface ionization source together with an electrostatic quadrupole (ESQ) accelerator to meet these requirements. The pulse length is {approx}4 {micro}s, firing at once every 10-15 seconds. By optimizing the extraction diode and the ESQ voltages, we have obtained an output beam with good current density uniformity, except for a small increase near the beam edge. Characterization of the beam emerging from the injector included measurements of the intensity profile, beam imaging, and transverse phase space. These data along with comparison to computer simulations provide the knowledge base for designing and understanding future HCX experiments.

Overview of the scientific objectives of the High Current Experiment for heavy-ion fusion

The High Current Experiment (HCX) is being built to explore heavy-ion beam transport at a scale appropriate to the low-energy end of a driver for fusion energy production. The primary mission of this experiment is to investigate aperture fill factors acceptable for the transport of space-charge dominated heavy-ion beams at high space-charge intensity (line-charge density /spl sim/0.2 /spl mu/C/m) over long pulse durations (3-10 /spl mu/sec). A single beam transport channel will be used to evaluate scientific and technological issues resulting from the transport of an intense beam subject to applied field nonlinearities, envelope mismatch, misalignment-induced centroid excursions, imperfect vacuum, halo, background gas and electron effects resulting from lost beam ions. Emphasis will be on the influence of these effects on beam control and limiting degradations in beam quality (emittance growth). Electrostatic (Phase I) and magnetic (Phase II) quadrupole focusing lattices have been designed and future phases of the experiment may involve acceleration and/or pulse compression. The Phase I lattice is presently under construction and simulations to better predict machine performance are being carried out. Here we overview: the scientific objectives of the overall project, processes that will be explored, and transport lattices developed.

Short intense ion pulses for materials and warm dense matter research

We have commenced experiments with intense short pulses of ion beams on the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, by generating beam spots size with radius r<1 mm within 2 ns FWHM and approximately 1010 ions/pulse. To enable the short pulse durations and mm-scale focal spot radii, the 1.2 MeV Li+ ion beam is neutralized in a 1.6-meter drift compression section located after the last accelerator magnet. An 8-Tesla short focal length solenoid compresses the beam in the presence of the large volume plasma near the end of this section before the target. The scientific topics to be explored are warm dense matter, the dynamics of radiation damage in materials, and intense beam and beam-plasma physics including selected topics of relevance to the development of heavy-ion drivers for inertial fusion energy. Finally, we describe the accelerator commissioning and time-resolved ionoluminescence measurements of yttrium aluminum perovskite using the fully integrated accelerator and neutralized drift compression components.

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.

Results from a scaled final focus experiment for heavy ion fusion

A one-tenth-scale version of a final focus subsystem for a heavy-ion-fusion driver has been built and used for experimental tests of concept. By properly scaling the parameters that relate ion energy and mass, current, emittance, and focusing fields, the transverse dynamics of a representative driver final focus have been replicated in a small laboratory beam. Whereas the driver beam parameters considered are 10 GeV Bi+ at 1.25 kA, the scaled experiment used a 95 μA beam of 160 keV Cs+ ions brought to a ballistic focus through a series of six quadrupole magnets. The measured focal spot size was consistent with calculations in the report of the design on which the experiment is based. In a second experimental program, a 400 μA beam was propagated through the focal system and partially neutralized after the last magnet using electrons released from a hot tungsten filament to test the predictions of the benefits of neutralization. The increase in beam current resulted in a corresponding increase in spot radi...

The high current experiment: First results

The High Current Experiment (HCX) is being assembled at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as part of the US program to explore heavy-ion beam transport at a scale representative of the low-energy end of an induction linac driver for fusion energy production. The primary mission of this experiment is to investigate aperture fill factors acceptable for the transport of space-charge dominated heavy-ion beams at high spacecharge intensity (line-charge density {approx} 0.2 {micro}C/m) over long pulse durations (>4 {micro}s). This machine will test transport issues at a driver-relevant scale resulting from nonlinear space-charge effects and collective modes, beam centroid alignment and beam steering, matching, image charges, halo, lost-particle induced electron effects, and longitudinal bunch control. We present the first experimental results carried out with the coasting K{sup +} ion beam transported through the first 10 electrostatic transport quadrupoles and associated diagnostics. Later phases of the experiment will include more electrostatic lattice periods to allow more sensitive tests of emittance growth, and also magnetic quadrupoles to explore similar issues in magnetic channels with a full driver scale beam.