Production of intense megavolt ion beams with a vacuum reflex discharge

Abstract

Experiments have been carried out using a reflex triode‐type pulsed ion accelerator at voltages up to 1.8 MeV. Large reductions in the breakdown electron current drawn by the system resulted from the electron reflexing. Diode closure was the major problem and was strongly affected by the choice of anode materials. The best results were obtained with thin aluminum foil anodes. Over a total accelerating pulse of 130 nsec peak aluminum currents in excess of 5 kA were extracted with a peak energy of Al⁺⁺ of 3 MeV.