Measurement of H- density in plasma by photodetachment

Techniques have been developed for measurement of the density of H- in a plasma by photodetachment. Photodetachment is detected by the increase in electron density with no change in positive ion density after a light pulse from a ruby laser. The authenticity of photodetachment signals can be assured by their comparison with known cross sections for photodetachment of H-. Interpretations of photodetachment data are less ambiguous than probe interpretations because photodetachment is not affected by the mass of positive ions and is not limited in usefulness by the Debye distance. Photodetachment measurements with time resolution and spatial resolution are straightforward.     

Wave frequency dependence of H- ion production and extraction in a transformer coupled plasma H- ion source at SNU

The effect of rf wave frequencies on the production of H(-) ion is investigated in a transformer coupled plasma H(-) ion source at Seoul National University. A Langmuir probe is installed to measure the plasma density and temperature, and these plasma parameters are correlated to the extracted H(-) beam currents at various frequencies. The Langmuir probe is also used to measure the density of H(-) ions at the ion source by generating photodetachment with an Nd:YAG laser. The extracted H(-) currents decrease to a minimum value until 13 MHz and then, increase as the driving frequency increases from 13 MHz while the relative H(-) population measured by photodetachment monotonically decreases as the driving rf frequency increases from 11 MHz to 15 MHz. A potential well formed at the extraction region at high frequencies of more than 13 MHz is considered responsible for the increased H(-) beam extraction even with a lower photodetachment signal. The variation in the driving rf frequency not only affects the density and temperature of the plasma but also modifies the plasma potential with the existence of a filtering magnetic field and consequently, influences the extracted H(-) current through the extraction as well as formation of H(-) ions.     

Design of a cavity ring-down spectroscopy diagnostic for negative ion rf source SPIDER

The rf source test facility SPIDER will test and optimize the source of the 1 MV neutral beam injection systems for ITER. Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) will measure the absolute line-of-sight integrated density of negative (H(-) and D(-)) ions, produced in the extraction region of the source. CRDS takes advantage of the photodetachment process: negative ions are converted to neutral hydrogen atoms by electron stripping through absorption of a photon from a laser. The design of this diagnostic is presented with the corresponding simulation of the expected performance. A prototype operated without plasma has provided CRDS reference signals, design validation, and results concerning the signal-to-noise ratio.     

Cesium dynamics in long pulse operation of negative hydrogen ion sources for fusion

Large scale negative hydrogen ion sources operating stable for 1 h (cw mode) are required for the neutral beam heating system of the fusion experiment ITER. The formation of negative hydrogen ions relies on the surface effect for which cesium is evaporated into the source. In order to monitor the cesium dynamics the laser absorption spectroscopy technique is applied to the long pulse test facility MANITU. In the vacuum phase, without plasma operation the evaporation of cesium and the built-up of the cesium in the source are measured. Typical neutral cesium densities are 10(15) m(-3). During plasma operation and after the plasma phase a high cesium dynamics is observed, showing also depletion of cesium during long pulses with low cesium amount. The co-extracted electron current decreases with the cesium amount to a certain level whereas the ion current indicates an optimum density range.     

Ion optical design of a collinear laser-negative ion beam apparatus

An apparatus for photodetachment studies on atomic and molecular negative ions of medium up to heavy mass (M ? 500) has been designed and constructed. Laser and ion beams are merged in the apparatus in a collinear geometry and atoms, neutral molecules and negative ions are detected in the forward direction. The ion optical design and the components used to optimize the mass resolution and the transmission through the extended field-free interaction region are described. A 90° sector field magnet with 50 cm bending radius in combination with two slits is used for mass dispersion providing a resolution of M∕ΔM?800 for molecular ions and M∕ΔM?400 for atomic ions. The difference in mass resolution for atomic and molecular ions is attributed to different energy distributions of the sputtered ions. With 1 mm slits, transmission from the source through the interaction region to the final ion detector was determined to be about 0.14%.     

Beam purification by photodetachment (invited)

Ion beam purity is of crucial importance to many basic and applied studies in nuclear science. Selective photodetachment has been proposed to suppress unwanted species in negative ion beams while preserving the intensity of the species of interest. A highly efficient technique based on photodetachment in a gas-filled radio frequency quadrupole ion cooler has been demonstrated. In off-line experiments with stable ions, up to 10(4) times suppression of the isobar contaminants in a number of interesting radioactive negative ion beams has been demonstrated. For selected species, this technique promises new experimental possibilities in studies on exotic nuclei, accelerator mass spectrometry, and fundamental properties of negative atomic and molecular ions.     

Electron density measurement of cesium seeded negative ion source by surface wave probe

Electron density measurements of a large-scaled negative ion source were carried out with a surface wave probe. By comparison of the electron densities determined with the surface wave probe and a Langmuir probe, it was confirmed that the surface wave probe is highly available for diagnostic of the electron density in H(-) ion sources. In addition, it was found that the ratio of the electron density to the H(-) ion density dramatically decreases with increase of a bias voltage and the H(-) ions become dominant negative particles at the bias voltage of more than 6 V.     

The development of the radio frequency driven negative ion source for neutral beam injectors (invited)

Large and powerful negative hydrogen ion sources are required for the neutral beam injection (NBI) systems of future fusion devices. Simplicity and maintenance-free operation favors RF sources, which are developed intensively at the Max-Planck-Institut fu?r Plasmaphysik (IPP) since many years. The negative hydrogen ions are generated by caesium-enhanced surface conversion of atoms and positive ions on the plasma grid surface. With a small scale prototype the required high ion current density and the low fraction of co-extracted electrons at low pressure as well as stable pulses up to 1 h could be demonstrated. The modular design allows extension to large source dimensions. This has led to the decision to choose RF sources for the NBI of the international fusion reactor, ITER. As an intermediate step towards the full size ITER source at IPP, the development will be continued with a half-size source on the new ELISE testbed. This will enable to gain experience for the first time with negative hydrogen ion beams from RF sources of these dimensions.     

Phase-contrast imaging using ultrafast x-rays in laser-shocked materials

High-energy x-rays, >10?keV, can be efficiently produced from ultrafast laser target interactions with many applications to dense target materials in inertial confinement fusion and high-energy density physics. These same x-rays can also be applied to measurements of low-density materials inside high-density Hohlraum environments. In the experiments presented, high-energy x-ray images of laser-shocked polystyrene are produced through phase contrast imaging. The plastic targets are nominally transparent to traditional x-ray absorption but show detailed features in regions of high density gradients due to refractive effects often called phase contrast imaging. The 200 TW Trident laser is used both to produce the x-ray source and to shock the polystyrene target. X-rays at 17 keV produced from 2 ps, 100 J laser interactions with a 12?μm molybdenum wire are used to produce a small source size, required for optimizing refractive effects. Shocks are driven in the 1 mm thick polystyrene target using 2 ns, 250 J, 532 nm laser drive with phase plates. X-ray images of shocks compare well to one-dimensional hydro calculations.     

Optimization of negative ion current in a compact microwave driven upper hybrid resonance multicusp plasma source

Performance of a microwave driven upper hybrid resonance multicusp plasma source as a volume negative ion source is reported. Microwaves are directly launched into the plasma chamber predominantly in the TE(11) mode. The source is operated at different discharge conditions to obtain the optimized negative H(-) ion current which is ～33 μA (0.26 mA∕cm(2)). Particle balance equations are solved to estimate the negative ion density, which is compared with the experimental results. Future prospects of the source are discussed.     

Compression and focusing a laser produced plasma using a plasma optical system

Axi-symmetric compression and focusing of a low temperature laser produced copper plasma with an electrostatic plasma optical system was investigated for the first time. The degree of plasma concentration was quantified using Langmuir ion measurements of the ion flow and optical measurements of the thickness distributions of copper depositions on glass substrates. Both the ion flow and the deposition measurements showed strong concentration of the ion-plasma flow towards the axis. The ion current density at the focus was compressed by a factor up to 9. The on-axis deposition rate was increased by about the same factor.     

Status of the laser ion source at IMP

A laser (Nd:YAG laser, 3 J, 1064 nm, 8-10 ns) ion source has been built and under development at IMP to provide pulsed high-charge-state heavy ion beams to a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) for upgrading the IMP accelerators with a new low-energy beam injector. The laser ion source currently operates in a direct plasma injection scheme to inject the high charge state ions produced from a solid target into the RFQ. The maximum power density on the target was about 8.4 × 10(12) W∕cm(2). The preliminary experimental results will be presented and discussed in this paper.     

MeV negative ion source from ultra-intense laser-matter interaction

Experimental demonstration of negative ion acceleration to MeV energies from sub-micron size droplets of water spray irradiated by ultra-intense laser pulses is presented. Thanks to the specific target configuration and laser parameters, more than 10(9) negative ions per steradian solid angle in 5% energy bandwidth are accelerated in a stable and reliable manner. To our knowledge, by virtue of the ultra-short duration of the emission, this is by far the brightest negative ion source reported. The data also indicate the existence of beams of neutrals with at least similar numbers and energies.     

Li+ ion emission from a hot-plate alumina-silicate source stimulated by flash heating with an infrared laser

The Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II accelerator under construction at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been designed to employ a lithium-doped alumino-silicate (Al-Si) hot-plate surface-ionization ion source. In order to achieve the design 1 mA∕cm(2) current density, the emitter must be constantly kept at a high temperature, leading to the accelerated loss of Li material as ions or neutrals. As a result, the estimated lifetime of the source is 50 h. This lifetime can be extended if the source is kept at low temperature during standby, and pulse heated to the high temperature during the ion extraction phase only. A pulsed heating technique based on an infrared laser (CO(2) gas discharge, λ = 10.6 μm) is described in this paper. The feasibility of ion current emission stimulated by flash heating with an infrared (IR) laser was demonstrated. High repeatability of the laser-stimulated ion current was observed, creating an opportunity for modulation and gating of the ion current with a laser pulse. It was found that with the available low power (≈115 W∕cm(2)) IR laser, current densities as high as 0.8 mA∕cm(2) could be achieved with a 2.8 mm diameter source. Various approaches for scaling to a larger (10 cm diameter) source and the application of short pulse, high power lasers are discussed. The results and conclusions of this paper may apply to various species of hot-plate ion sources.     

Beam current enhancement of microwave plasma ion source utilizing double-port rectangular cavity resonator

Microwave plasma ion source with rectangular cavity resonator has been examined to improve ion beam current by changing wave launcher type from single-port to double-port. The cavity resonators with double-port and single-port wave launchers are designed to get resonance effect at TE-103 mode and TE-102 mode, respectively. In order to confirm that the cavities are acting as resonator, the microwave power for breakdown is measured and compared with the E-field strength estimated from the HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator) simulation. Langmuir probe measurements show that double-port cavity enhances central density of plasma ion source by modifying non-uniform plasma density profile of the single-port cavity. Correspondingly, beam current from the plasma ion source utilizing the double-port resonator is measured to be higher than that utilizing single-port resonator. Moreover, the enhancement in plasma density and ion beam current utilizing the double-port resonator is more pronounced as higher microwave power applied to the plasma ion source. Therefore, the rectangular cavity resonator utilizing the double-port is expected to enhance the performance of plasma ion source in terms of ion beam extraction.     

Note: improving spatial resolution of optical frequency-domain reflectometry against frequency tuning nonlinearity using non-uniform fast Fourier transform

We propose using non-uniform FFT to minimize the degrading effect of frequency tuning nonlinearity of a tunable laser source (TLS) in an optical frequency-domain reflectometry (OFDR) system. We use an auxiliary interferometer to obtain the required instantaneous optical frequency of the TLS and successfully demonstrate 100 times enhancement in spatial resolution of OFDR with only a 20% increase in computation time. The corresponding measurement reflectivity sensitivity is better than -80 dB, sufficient to detect bending induced index changes in an optical fiber.     

An ion source with an ejecting U-shaped electrode

The design of an ion source is described, in which any replacement of diaphragms of electron and ion optics can be performed and, as a result, new technical characteristics of the source can be obtained. The extended capabilities of the ion source are substantial for revealing the causes of such a phenomenon as a spread in measurements of lifetimes of negative ions, which are performed using instruments of different types. The use of an ejecting U-shaped electrode in the source allowed the intensity of recorded signals to be increased by a factor of at least 2.     

用透射光栅谱仪测量多层膜的反射特性

软X射线多层膜是当前应用光学和工程光学的研究热点之一,反射率是其性能和膜层质量最直观的参数,它的测量对了解多层膜性能和改进多层膜制备工艺具有重要意义。本文介绍采用带有前置光学系统的大面积透射光栅光谱仪分光,让软X射线多层膜反射+1级或-1级软X射线,用国产的SIOFM型X射线胶片接受软X射线,通过测量可定性地判断多层膜制备质量,为改进多层膜制备工艺提供重要的参考依据。     

Pulse shape measurements using single shot-frequency resolved optical gating for high energy (80 J) short pulse (600 fs) laser

Relevant to laser based electron/ion accelerations, a single shot second harmonic generation frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) system has been developed to characterize laser pulses (80 J, ～600?fs) incident on and transmitted through nanofoil targets, employing relay imaging, spatial filter, and partially coated glass substrates to reduce spatial nonuniformity and B-integral. The device can be completely aligned without using a pulsed laser source. Variations of incident pulse shape were measured from durations of 613 fs (nearly symmetric shape) to 571 fs (asymmetric shape with pre- or postpulse). The FROG measurements are consistent with independent spectral and autocorrelation measurements.     

A close-coupling multi-antenna type radio frequency driven ion source

A newly close coupling multi-antenna type radio frequency driven ion source is tested for the purpose of essentially improving plasma coupling on the basis of our old type ion source, which reuses a NNBI (negative ion source for neutral beam injection) ion source used in 1∕5th scale of the Large Helical Device NNBI. The ion source and the antenna structure are described, and the efficient plasma production in terms of the positive ion saturation current (the current density) is studied. The source is made of a metal-walled plasma chamber which is desirable from the point of view of the structural toughness for fusion and industrial application, etc. At around 160 kW of rf input power, the ion saturation current density successfully reaches the 5 A∕cm(2) level with a gas pressure of 0.6-2 Pa in hydrogen for 10 ms pulse duration. The rf power efficiency of the plasma production with a close coupling configuration of the antenna is improved substantially compared to that with the previous antenna unit in the old type ion source. The power efficiency is assessed as competing with that of other types of sources.