Decreased beam divergence in proof-of-principle experiment for the light ion beam fusion facility PBFA II

Abstract

The Proto-I experiment for a proof-of-principle experiment is described resulting in a beam divergence for ions of only 14mrad at 1·5 MV—420 KA operation and 6 KA/cm2 anode current density before focusing. This is a better beam divergence than required for Sandia National Laboratories' PBFA I and II installations, for which scaling is discussed. Ion source development is reported and the PBFA II experiment described for 30 MV operation with short pulses (10–15 nsec) of lithium ions. Pulses of 50 nsec width and 130 KJ energy have been achieved from the prototype module for PBFA II.