Progress on the computer simulation of LANSCE's production H-ion source
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Source
- Conference: Submitted to: 31st European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics, held at Imperial College, London, June 28-July 2, 2004
- Subject
- 08 HYDROGEN COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRODES
HYDROGEN
ION SOURCES
MODIFICATIONS
PHYSICS
PLASMA
PRODUCTION
- Language
- English
1D and 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) codes have been developed to study the negative hydrogen (H{sup -}) ion sources used at the LANSCE accelerator. These ion sources operate through a surface conversion process, generating an H{sup -} beam at a negatively biased, cesiated electrode immersed in a hydrogen plasma. Preliminary results indicate that some modifications of the original design may improve the ion source efficiency. The simulations indicate that the propagating beam is highly divergent due to a larger than expected sheath region around the cesiated electrode and due to the defocusing edge fields at the converter.