PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ION BEAMS FROM MAGNETICALLY INSULATED DIODES.

摘要

The operation of magnetically insulated diodes and the characteristics of the resulting ion beams have been investigated using two pulsed power generators, LYNX at the 10('9)W power level, and Neptune at the 10('11)W power level.; LYNX is a small magnetically insulated diode driven directly by a Marx bank. By changing the material used as the surface flashover ion source, the majority ion species generated by the diode could be chosen. Ion beams produced so far by this device are: protons, lithium, boron, carbon, sodium, strontium, and barium. Typical beam parameters for the ion beams are peak energies of 300 keV, current densities of 40-60 A/cm('2,) and pulse durations of 300-400 nsec. The ion beam uniformity, divergence, and reproducibility were shown to be a function of the surface flashover source geometry. Finally, the LYNX ion beam was also used to anneal silicon crystals and other materials science experiments.; The diode used on the Neptune generator was designed to study virtual cathode formation in a high power magnetically insulated diode. The physical cathode was replaced by electrons that ExB drift on the applied magnetic field lines. It was found that the best electrode configuration is one in which the electrons are required to only undergo the Hall drift to form the cathode. The divergence of the ion beam was examined with time-dependent and time-integrated shadowbox diagnostics. It was found that the intrinsic divergence of the ion beam does not have a strong directional dependence. However, the beam suffers a time-dependent aiming error in the plane of the ion beam acceleration and the Hall drift, which is attributed to the dynamics of the virtual cathode electrons. Low time-integrated divergence of the ion beam was attributed to the portion of the ion beam that was carbon (typically 50%).; Analysis and discussion of the results is presented on the anode plasma formation and heating process, the virtual cathode flow in the Neptune diode, and the physical mechanisms of the ion beam divergence behavior.