Heavy ion beam final transport through an insulator guide in heavy ion fusion

Abstract

Key issues of heavy ion beam (HIB) inertial confinement fusion (ICF) include an efficient stable beam transport, beam focusing, uniform fuel pellet implosion, and so on. To realize a HIB fine focus on a fuel pellet, space-charge neutralization of incident focusing HIB is required at the HIB final transport just after a final focusing element in an HIB accelerator. In this article, an insulator annular tube guide is proposed at the final transport part, through which a HIB is transported. The physical mechanism of HIB charge neutralization based on an insulator annular guide is as follows: A local electric field created by HIB induces local discharges, and plasma is produced on the insulator inner surface. Then electrons are extracted from the plasma by the HIB net space charge. The electrons emitted neutralize the HIB space charge well.