Generation and diagnostics of pulsed intense ion beams with an energy density of 10 J/cm2

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study on transportation and focusing of a pulsed ion beam at gigawatt power level, generated by a diode with explosive-emission cathode. The experiments were carried out with the TEMP-4M accelerator operating in double-pulse mode: the first pulse is of negative polarity (500 ns, 100-150 kV), and this is followed by a second pulse of positive polarity (120 ns, 200-250 kV). To reduce the beam divergence, we modified the construction of the diode. The width of the anode was increased compared to that of the cathode. We studied different configurations of planar and focusing strip diodes. It was found that the divergence of the ion beam formed by a planar strip diode, after construction modification, does not exceed 3° (half-angle). Modification to the construction of a focusing diode made it possible to reduce the beam divergence from 8° to 4°-5°, as well as to increase the energy density at the focus up to 10-12 J/cm2, and decrease the shot to shot variation in the energy density from 10%-15% to 5%-6%. When measuring the ion beam energy density above the ablation threshold of the target material (3.5-4 J/cm2), we used a metal mesh with 50% transparency to lower the energy density. The influence of the metal mesh on beam transport has been studied.