W. L. Stirling

Magnetic multipole line-cusp plasma generator for neutral beam injectors

The magnetic multipole line-cusp device developed by MacKenzie and associates has been adapted for use as a neutral beam ion source. It has produced high-density, large volume, quiescent, uniform hydrogen plasmas, which makes it a potential candidate for use as a plasma generator for neutral beam injectors. The device is a water-cooled cylindrical copper discharge chamber (25 cm in diameter by 36 cm long) with one end enclosed by a set of extraction grids with a 15-cm-diam multi-aperture pattern. The chamber wall serves as an anode and is surrounded by an external system of rare-earth cobalt magnets arranged in a line-cusp geometry of 12 cusps; plasma is produced by electron emission from a hot cathode assembly. This source has achieved extracted beam currents of 12 A at 18.5 kV, radial plasma density uniformities of +/-5% over a 15-cm diameter, noise levels of less than +/-0.5%, and arc efficiencies (beam current/arc power) of 0.6 A/kW.

Effect of preacceleration voltage upon ion‐beam divergence

The effect of an insulator coating on the plasma electrode of a duoPIGatron ion source on ion‐beam optics was examined theoretically and experimentally. The effect of a preacceleration potential, applied between the insulated electrode and the target cathode of the source plasma, on ion optics was also examined. A principal result is that this electrode arrangement with precel gives a much lower beam divergence than the same arrangement without precel. Detailed comparisons between the data and calculations are presented.

Quasi-steady-state multimegawatt ion source for neutral beam injection

A quasi‐steady‐state (pulse duration of 30 s) ion source of the duoPIGatron type has been developed for fusion applications. It was designed to deliver an 80‐keV hydrogen ion beam of low beamlet divergence (Θrms= 0.26°) at a current density of 0.19 A cm−2. Hydrogen ion beams of 40 to 48 A were extracted at beam energies of 77 to 80 keV for 30‐s‐long pulses. The reliability and stability of the ion source operation were demonstrated by extracting about 600 beam pulses at full power and full pulse length. The ion source was also operated with deuterium as the working gas, and the optimum current at 80 keV was found to be about 33 A, in agreement with the expected inverse square‐root scaling of current density with atomic mass.

Properties of an intense 40-kV neutral beam injector.

The properties of an intense neutral beam injector, the modified duoPIGatron ion source, are discussed and compared with other injectors. For this source (a) beam composition for hydrogen is approximately (85+/-5) % monatomic, (b) nucleon gas efficiency is 50%, (c) the electrical efficiency of ion generation is 1.1 A/kW, and (d) up to 52% of the input power is delivered in the ion and neutral beam to a target subtending a half angle of 1.8 degrees x1.4 degrees .

Properties of an intense 50‐kV neutral‐beam injection system

The properties of an intense 50‐kV neutral‐beam system are discussed. The salient features of this system are a transmission efficiency of 76% of the extracted ion beam through a 30×34 cm aperture that is 4.5 m from the ion source, a transmitted neutral power of 1.8 MW H0 (2.0 MW D0) at extraction parameters of 50 kV/100 A/0.1 s (53 kV/85 A/0.1 s), a proton fraction of ∼80%, an ion‐source arc efficiency of ∼1.3 A/kW, an ion‐source gas efficiency of ∼35%, and a reliability of ≳90%.

Power flow along a 40-kV multimegawatt neutral beam line

The results of a systematic investigation of the power flow along the Oak Ridge National Laboratory/Princeton Large Torus (ORNL/PLT) neutral beam line, using an intense modified duoPIGatron source with a 22‐cm active grid diameter and 1799 circular apertures that provide 53% transparency, are reported. The variation of power deposited on the different components of the beam line is measured over a wide range of perveance values. The maximum efficiency for beam power transmitted through a 20×25‐cm aperture located 4.1 m downstream was found to be 41%. This efficiency was raised to 53% when a voltage of about 175 V was applied to preaccelerate the ions entering the extraction apertures. Transmission efficiencies approaching 60% were obtained using shaped apertures on the plasma grid. Higher efficiencies should be attainable when used for PLT injection since the acceptance angle for the Princeton tokamak is 11% higher than that of the test facility. Detailed analysis of the results using straight circular ap...

Ion beam extraction from a plasma with aberration reduction by method of mutual exclusion

Using an algorithm for solution of the Poisson‐Vlasov equations for ions extracted from a plasma, an electrode shape is considered which has high optimum perveance and low beam divergence.

Positive-ion recovery scheme based on magnetic blocking of electrons

A method is described for making positive‐ion‐based neutral‐beam injection viable at energies of ≲100 keV per nucleon by recovering the energy of residual charged particles as electrical energy. The concept of transverse magnetic field blocking of electrons has been shown to be successful, and preliminary experimental results are presented.

Ion optics improvements to a multiple aperture ion source

Experimental comparison is made of four plasma grids, each with a specific aperture geometry, in an attempt to improve the ion optics of a multiple aperture ion source. It is clearly shown that a simple notch geometry outperforms the other candidates with a high transmission efficiency (∼68%) to a 2° target at high perveance (∼9.6 μperv).

ISX-B neutral beam injector experiment on a prototype beam line

Two PLT-injector-type duoPIGatron sources, modified further by shaping the beam-forming apertures, have been tested and experimented on a prototype beam line similar to the ISX-B neutral beam injection system. The accelerator column modification has resulted in an increase of the beam power transmission efficiency from that of the straight-bore aperture by 50%. Maximum neutral beam powers achieved on a 28-cm-diam target simulating the ISX-B plasma, located 4.1 m downstream from the source, are congruent to 910 kW of H/sup 0/ at an accelerator power of 42 kV and 61 A and congruent to 1020 kW of D/sup 0/ at 43 kV and 55 A. Measurements have been made to investigate the following: the effects on beam optics of aperture shape, aspect ratio, and different ions (H/sup +/ or D/sup +/); the distribution of beam power deposition along the beam line; ion species compositions; and background pressure behavior due to scraped-off beam particles.