Neutron generator based on intense lithium beam driver.

We are proposing a compact neutron generator based on a Li beam driver. The proposed neutron generator comprises a laser ion source, a radio-frequency quadrupole linear accelerator (RFQ linac), a drift tube linac, and a target containing protons. In the generator, the lithium ion is used as a projectile instead of protons to utilize the kinematic focusing technique. The technique enables us to enhance the neutron flux without increasing the beam energy, which is important to develop a clean compact neutron generator. Moreover, the combination of a laser ion source and a RFQ linac with the direct plasma injection scheme will provide several tens of mA of a fully ionized lithium beam, which is much higher than that of conventional heavy ion sources comparable with proton drivers. Neutrons are generated by the nuclear reaction of the lithium ions and protons in the beam target. In this paper, we reported the current status of the development. For RFQ, we designed the RFQ rods to accelerate 40 mA of 7Li3+. We fabricated and installed the rods into a cavity, and, as a first test, accelerated 10 mA of C6+ successfully.

Side extraction duoPIGatron-type ion source.

We have designed and constructed a compact duoPIGatron-type ion source, for possible use in ion implanters, in which ions are extracted from a side aperture in contrast to conventional duoPIGatron sources with axial ion extraction. The size of the side extraction aperture is 1 x 40 mm(2). The ion source was developed to study physical and technological aspects relevant to an industrial ion source. The side extraction duoPIGatron has a stable arc, uniformly bright illumination, and dense plasma. The present work describes some operating parameters of the ion source using argon and BF(3). Total unanalyzed beam currents were 40 mA with Ar at an arc current of 7 A and 13 mA with BF(3) gas at an arc current of 9 A.

Eliminating unwanted electrons in EBIS devices.

In electron beam ion sources, step-wise ionization to high charge states is accomplished by magnetically confined electron beam. Electron space charge and high voltage electrodes confine the ions. The relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) ion source Debye length meets requirements for instabilities with free source of energy to grow. Electrons stripped from ions provide energy for a variety of microinstabilities to grow. Possible solution is to remove these electrons from the trap to a drift tube biased to higher voltage than the other tubes between the gate and the collector. If needed, a split drift tube for bleeding these electrons to ground is added.