A HIGH-CHARGE-STATE HEAVY-ION SOURCE

THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HEAVY ION STRIPPING TECHNIQUE TO ACHIEVE A HIGH CHARGE STATE BEAM. THE ION STRIPPER PROPOSED HERE COULD BE ADDED TO EXISTING SINGLE CHARGE STATE, LOW EMITTANCE, HIGH BRIGHTNESS ION SOURCES. USING HIGH CHARGE STATE BEAMS IN A DRIVER FOR HEAVY ION FUSION CAN INCREASE THE ACCELERATION EFFICIENCY, LEADING TO A REDUCTION IN THE DRIVER ACCELERATOR SIZE AND COST. SEVERAL ION STRIPPING TECHNIQUES, BASED ON THE IONIZATION OF AN ENERGETIC ION BEAM COLLIDING WITH CHARGED PARTICLE BEAMS (ELECTRONS, IONS), PHOTON BEAMS (LASERS) AND A QUIESCENT NEUTRAL GAS HAVE BEEN EVALUATED. UPON EVALUATION AND COMPARISON WITH OTHER TECHNIQUES, THE NEUTRAL GAS TECHNIQUE WAS SELECTED BECAUSE OF ITS SIMPLICITY AND LOW COST. PHASE I IS A FEASIBILITY STUDY AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A NEURTRAL GAS ION STRIPPER TECHNIQUE. A NEUTRAL GAS SLIT STRIPPER WILL BE DESIGNED AND TESTED ON THE LAWRENCE BERKELEY LABORATORY 2MEV, 0.8A K+ ION BEAM INJECTOR. STRIPPER PARAMETERS, INCLUDING DIMENSIONS, GAS, GAS PRESSURE, AND BEAM PARAMETERS, INCLUDING CHARGE STATE DISTRIBUTIONS (STRIPPING EFFICIENCY) AND BEAM QUALITY (TRANSVERSE EMITTANCE) WILL BE ANALYZED VERIFIED EXPERIMENTALLY, AND OPTIMIZED.