New ion source for KSTAR neutral beam injection system

The neutral beam injection system (NBI-1) of the KSTAR tokamak can accommodate three ion sources; however, it is currently equipped with only one prototype ion source. In the 2010 and 2011 KSTAR campaigns, this ion source supplied deuterium neutral beam power of 0.7-1.6 MW to the KSTAR plasma with a beam energy of 70-100 keV. A new ion source will be prepared for the 2012 KSTAR campaign with a much advanced performance compared with the previous one. The newly designed ion source has a very large transparency (～56%) without deteriorating the beam optics, which is designed to deliver a 2 MW injection power of deuterium beams at 100 keV. The plasma generator of the ion source is of a horizontally cusped bucket type, and the whole inner wall, except the cathode filaments and plasma grid side, functions as an anode. The accelerator assembly consists of four multi-circular aperture grids made of copper and four electrode flanges made of aluminum alloy. The electrodes are insulated using PEEK. The ion source will be completed and tested in 2011.     

Ten-microsecond pulsed molecular beam source and a fast ionization detector

We describe a pulsed gas valve which we have developed for use as a molecular beam source. In order to observe the performance of the pulsed beam source, we also have developed an ionization detector with a rise time of about 1 micros. The pulsed valve produces very intense supersonic molecular beam pulses of about 10 micros duration for light gases such as H2 and He, and of somewhat longer duration for heavier gases. As a new tool for the study of molecular collisions, the pulsed beam technique offers substantial advantages over the conventional continuous-beam method for experiments which are limited by the signal-to background ratio for scattered products.     

Development of ion source with a washer gun for pulsed neutral beam injection

A new type of economical neutral beam source has been developed by using a single washer gun, pulsed operation, and a simple electrode system. We replaced the conventional hot filaments for arc-discharge-type plasma formation with a single stainless-steel washer gun, eliminating the entire dc power supply for the filaments and the cooling system for the electrodes. Our initial experiments revealed successful beam extraction up to 10 kV and 8.6 A, based on spatial profile measurements of density and temperature in the plasma source. The system also shows the potential to control the beam profile by controlling the plasma parameters in the ion accumulation chamber.     

Inclined slot-excited annular electron cyclotron resonance plasma source for hyperthermal neutral beam generation

An inclined slot-excited antenna (ISLAN) electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma source is newly designed and constructed for higher flux hyperthermal neutral beam (HNB) generation. The developed ISLAN source is modified from vertical slot-excited antenna (VSLAN) source in two aspects: one is the use of inclined slots instead of vertical slots, and the other is a cusp magnetic field configuration rather than a toroidal configuration. Such modifications allow us to have more uniform arrangement of slots and magnets, then enabling plasma generation more uniform and thinner. Moreover, ECR plasma allows higher ionization rate, enabling plasma density higher even in submillitorr pressures, therefore decreasing the collision rate and∕or the reionization rate of the reflected atoms while passing through the plasma, and eventually getting higher flux of HNBs. In this paper, we report the design features and the plasma characteristics of the ISLAN source by doing plasma measurements and electromagnetic simulations. It was found that ISLAN source can be a high potential source for larger flux HNB generation; the source was found to give higher plasma densities and better uniformities than inductively coupled plasma source, particularly in low pressure ranges. Also, it is important that using ISLAN gives easier matching and better stability, i.e., ISLAN shows similar field patterns and good plasma symmetries irrespective of the variations of the mean diameter of the ring resonator and∕or the presence of a limiter or a reflector, and the operating pressures.     

An alpha particle measurement system using an energetic neutral helium beam in ITER (invited)

An energetic helium neutral beam is involved in the beam neutralization measurement system of alpha particles confined in a DT fusion plasma. A full size strong-focusing He(+) ion source (2 A, the beam radius of 11.3 mm, the beam energy less than 20 keV). Present strong-focusing He(+) ion source shows an emittance diagram separated for each beamlet of multiple apertures without phase space mixing, despite the space charge of a beamlet is asymmetric and the beam flow is non-laminar. The emittance of beamlets in the peripheral region was larger than that of center. The heat load to the plasma electrode was studied to estimate the duty factor for the ITER application.     

Optical spectroscopy of plasma of the radio-frequency emitter of a powerful fast neutral beam injector

For studying entries of impurities into thermonuclear plasma, when injecting heated neutral beams, the spectroscopic diagnostics intended for promptly monitoring the plasma composition of the radiofrequency (RF) emitter of the powerful fast neutral beam injector is designed. The analysis of plasma radiation spectra allowed us to determine the rotational temperature of the neutral hydrogen and estimate the oxygen-to-carbon impurity ratio in the RF emitter. In this work, the long-term dynamics of the neutral oxygen line brightness is studied, and the influence of the discharge chamber ageing and warming-up on the impurity content is determined.     

Experimental ultra fast X-ray computed tomography with a linearly scanned electron beam source

We devised and tested a computed tomography approach that utilises a scanned electron beam X-ray source to produce fast tomographic image sequences of transient density distributions. Potential application areas for this technique are the visualisation and measurement of two-phase and particle flows in thermofluid dynamics research, chemical processes, or transport systems for fluids and bulk solids. In our setup we used a linear deflection pattern for the electron beam and a non-annular detector arc to record transmission data of an object from different projection angles. This approach gives the highest achievable axial resolution and is comparatively moderate in effort and costs. For the inverse problem we applied iterative image reconstruction techniques to reconstruct the density distribution from a limited data set. The method has been experimentally tested on static and dynamic phantoms with a frame rate of 1000 images per second and a spatial resolution of approximately 1 mm in plane and axial.     

A neutral beam sciopticon

A sciopticon based on the pinhole-camera effect is being used to determine individual beamlet contributions to the quality of neutral beams extracted from multiaperture ion sources. The technique outlined in this note can be used to study the effects on beam optics of nonhomogeneous source plasma density or acceleration gap nonuniformities, grid nonparallelism or aperture misplacement, and space-charge blowup or scattering in the neutralizer cell.     

An atomic beam source for fast loading of a magneto-optical trap under high vacuum

We report on a directional atomic beam created using an alkali metal dispenser and a nozzle. By applying a high current (15 A) pulse to the dispenser at room temperature we can rapidly heat it to a temperature at which it starts dispensing, avoiding the need for preheating. The atomic beam produced is capable of loading 90% of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) in less than 7 s while maintaining a low vacuum pressure of <10(-11) Torr. The transverse velocity components of the atomic beam are measured to be within typical capture velocities of a rubidium MOT. Finally, we show that the atomic beam can be turned off within 1.8 s.     

Development of a plasma generator for a long pulse ion source for neutral beam injectors

A plasma generator for a long pulse H(+)/D(+) ion source has been developed. The plasma generator was designed to produce 65 A H(+)/D(+) beams at an energy of 120 keV from an ion extraction area of 12 cm in width and 45 cm in length. Configuration of the plasma generator is a multi-cusp bucket type with SmCo permanent magnets. Dimension of a plasma chamber is 25 cm in width, 59 cm in length, and 32.5 cm in depth. The plasma generator was designed and fabricated at Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Source plasma generation and beam extraction tests for hydrogen coupling with an accelerator of the KSTAR ion source have been performed at the KSTAR neutral beam test stand under the agreement of Japan-Korea collaborative experiment. Spatial uniformity of the source plasma at the extraction region was measured using Langmuir probes and ±7% of the deviation from an averaged ion saturation current density was obtained. A long pulse test of the plasma generation up to 200 s with an arc discharge power of 70 kW has been successfully demonstrated. The arc discharge power satisfies the requirement of the beam production for the KSTAR NBI. A 70 keV, 41 A, 5 s hydrogen ion beam has been extracted with a high arc efficiency of 0.9 -1.1 A/kW at a beam extraction experiment. A deuteron yield of 77% was measured even at a low beam current density of 73 mA/cm(2).     

Measurements of neutral helium density in helicon plasmas

Laser-induced-fluorescence (LIF) is used to measure the density of helium atoms in a helicon plasma source. For a pump wavelength of 587.725 nm (vacuum) and laser injection along the magnetic field, the LIF signal exhibits a signal decrease at the Doppler shifted central wavelength. The drop in signal results from the finite optical depth of the plasma and the magnitude of the decrease is proportional to the density of excited state neutral atoms. Using Langmuir probe measurements of plasma density and electron temperature and a collisional-radiative model, the absolute ground state neutral density is calculated from the optical depth measurements. Optimal plasma performance, i.e., the largest neutral depletion on the axis of the system, is observed for antenna frequencies of 13.0 and 13.5 MHz and magnetic field strengths of 550-600 G.     

Characteristics of a fast neutral atom source with electrons injected into the source through its emissive grid from the vacuum chamber

In order to increase the equivalent current of a fast neutral atom beam the cold hollow cathode of the beam source is bombarded with electrons extracted from the plasma produced in the vacuum chamber and accelerated in the sheath between the plasma emitter of the source and its emissive grid. The cold cathode bombardment by accelerated electrons raises its electron emission current by an order of magnitude and as a result voltage U _c between the anode and the cathode of the source diminishes more than two times. This allows of increasing several times the beam equivalent current or decreasing the working gas pressure. A slight decrease in the U _c with increasing the accelerating voltage U at an overall cutoff of the electrons from the chamber reveals the influence of secondary electrons emitted by the grid. Measurement of the beam current is discussed.     

Field ionization of helium in a supersonic beam: Kinetic energy of neutral atoms and probability of their field ionization

High detection efficiency combined with spatial resolution on a nm-scale makes the field ionization process a promising candidate for spatially resolved neutral particles detection. The effective cross-sectional area σ_eff can serve as a measure for the effectiveness of such a field ion detector. In the present contribution, we combine quantum-mechanical calculations of the field-modified electron density distribution near the tungsten tip surface and of the resulting local field distributions, performed using the functional integration method, with a classical treatment of the atom trajectories approaching the tip in order to calculate the σ_eff values for ionization of free He atoms over an apex of a tungsten field emitter tip. The calculated values are compared with experimental data for supersonic He atomic beams at two different temperatures 95 and 298 K.     

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.     

Selecting the size of helium nanodroplets using time-resolved probing of a pulsed helium droplet beam

We show that helium nanodroplets generated using a pulsed valve undergo velocity dispersion according to their size. This makes it possible to use temporal selection to probe nanodroplets of a particular size within the pulsed gas profile rather than changing the expansion conditions as is done when using continuous helium nanodroplet sources. The variation in mean droplet size achievable within a single gas pulse can extend over more than an order of magnitude.     

Development of a low-energy and high-current pulsed neutral beam injector with a washer-gun plasma source for high-beta plasma experiments

We have developed a novel and economical neutral-beam injection system by employing a washer-gun plasma source. It provides a low-cost and maintenance-free ion beam, thus eliminating the need for the filaments and water-cooling systems employed conventionally. In our primary experiments, the washer gun produced a source plasma with an electron temperature of approximately 5 eV and an electron density of 5 × 10(17) m(-3), i.e., conditions suitable for ion-beam extraction. The dependence of the extracted beam current on the acceleration voltage is consistent with space-charge current limitation, because the observed current density is almost proportional to the 3∕2 power of the acceleration voltage below approximately 8 kV. By optimizing plasma formation, we successfully achieved beam extraction of up to 40 A at 15 kV and a pulse length in excess of 0.25 ms. Its low-voltage and high-current pulsed-beam properties enable us to apply this high-power neutral beam injection into a high-beta compact torus plasma characterized by a low magnetic field.     

Infrared thermography of a high-power neutral beam target

In conjunction with an experiment on high-power neutral beam injection for a fusion device, infrared thermography has been used to observe the beam-target interaction in a prototype injector vessel. The infrared radiation from the beam itself was studied, which allowed the evaluation of the signal to noise ratio in the injection experiment.     

Diagnostics of the ITER neutral beam test facility

The ITER heating neutral beam (HNB) injector, based on negative ions accelerated at 1 MV, will be tested and optimized in the SPIDER source and MITICA full injector prototypes, using a set of diagnostics not available on the ITER HNB. The RF source, where the H(-)∕D(-) production is enhanced by cesium evaporation, will be monitored with thermocouples, electrostatic probes, optical emission spectroscopy, cavity ring down, and laser absorption spectroscopy. The beam is analyzed by cooling water calorimetry, a short pulse instrumented calorimeter, beam emission spectroscopy, visible tomography, and neutron imaging. Design of the diagnostic systems is presented.     

Toward a full exploitation of the helium beam edge diagnostic

In this article, extension of the He beam diagnostic, which is routinely applied in fusion devices for the characterization of the edge electronic parameters-ne and Te-and their profile, to the measurement of ion temperature and plasma rotation is proposed. The theoretical background for these new applications is reviewed and examples of their use in TJ-II are provided. Also, the shortcomings and their possible solutions are addressed. Finally, the field of application of the technique to other beam-based diagnostics is discussed.     

Arc discharge regulation of a megawatt hot cathode bucket ion source for the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak neutral beam injector

Arc discharge of a hot cathode bucket ion source tends to be unstable what attributes to the filament self-heating and energetic electrons backstreaming from the accelerator. A regulation method, which based on the ion density measurement by a Langmuir probe, is employed for stable arc discharge operation and long pulse ion beam generation. Long pulse arc discharge of 100 s is obtained based on this regulation method of arc power. It establishes a foundation for the long pulse arc discharge of a megawatt ion source, which will be utilized a high power neutral beam injection device.