Two High Velocity Plasma Guns

Abstract

The design and operating parameters of two coaxial plasma guns are described. The high speed gun performance depends upon the use of (1) gas valve ports near the muzzle end of the central electrode, (2) an optimized gas diffusion delay time, and (3) a small injected gas load. The 10‐cm‐diam gun employs a low inductance power supply and a light gas load to yield a plasma containing ∼5×10¹⁶ D⁺ ions with a mean energy of 13 keV. The larger 25‐cm‐diam gun requires more energy and a larger gas load to yield a plasma containing a similar number of D⁺ ions but at a higher mean energy of ∼20 keV. As an example of gun performance, the 25‐cm‐diam gun produces a neutron yield of ≈10⁸ when incident upon a D₂O ice target located 3 m from the gun muzzle.