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The ion source and low energy beam transport (LEBT) section of the front-end systems presently being built at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are required to provide 50 mA of H– beam curren...
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Compact plasma accelerator device

Rev. Sci. Instrum. 73, 2020 (2002); doi:10.1063/1.1464658

Issue Date: May 2002

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John E. Foster
NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio 44135
A compact plasma accelerator concept based on plasma production at a magnetic cusp was designed and fabricated. Plume and discharge characteristics of the device were documented using a Faraday probe and a retarding potential analyzer. The discharge current variations with increasing discharge voltage were nonlinear with the discharge current increasing rapidly with voltage. The device demonstrated the capability of generating ion beamlets (~80 eV) with downstream peak current densities comparable to that of higher power ion thruster devices (7  mA/cm2). In general, the device appeared to operate best at very low flow rates. High propellant utilization fractions (ionization fractions) were measured below 1 SCCM of Xe flow (88% at 0.48 SCCM). Floating potential measurements made downstream of the device were used to estimate the downstream electric field. These measurements, which were used to qualitatively assess beam neutralization, indicated beam neutralization does occur downstream of the device. Based on the measurements, the compact plasma accelerator concept could potentially be used as a low energy ion source for propulsion applications or for low energy plasma/materials processing applications.
History: Received 3 December 2001; accepted 29 January 2002
Permalink: http://link.aip.org/link/?RSINAK/73/2020/1
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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords
PACS
  • 29.17.+w
    Experimental methods and instrumentation for elementary-particle and nuclear physics Electrostatic, collective, and linear accelerators
  • 29.25.Ni
    Experimental methods and instrumentation for elementary-particle and nuclear physics Particle sources and targets Ion sources: positive and negative
  • 07.77.Ka
    Instruments, apparatus, and components common to several branches of physics and astronomy Atomic, molecular, and charged-particle sources and detectors Charged-particle beam sources and detectors
  • 52.75.Di
    Physics of plasmas and electric discharges Plasma devices Ion and plasma propulsion
  • 52.50.Dg
    Physics of plasmas and electric discharges Plasma production and heating Plasma sources
  • YEAR: 2002

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PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:
0034-6748 (print)   1089-7623 (online)
Publisher:
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