Early Commissioning Results of the NDCX-II Accelerator Facility

ORAL

Abstract

The Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II (NDCX-II) will generate ion beam pulses for studies of Warm Dense Matter science and heavy-ion-driven Inertial Fusion Energy. The machine accelerates 20-50 nC of Li+ to 1.2-3 MeV energy, starting from a 10.9-cm alumino-silicate ion source. At the end of the accelerator the ions are focused to a sub-mm spot size onto a thin foil (planar) target. The pulse duration is compressed from $\sim $500 ns at the source to sub-ns at the target following beam transport in a neutralizing plasma. We report on the results of early commissioning studies that characterize beam quality and beam transport, acceleration waveform shaping and beam current evolution. We present measurements of time-resolved beam phase space density and variation in transverse beam centroid position. We present simulation results to benchmark against the experimental measurements, and to predict performance in subsequent sections of the accelerator.

*This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

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Authors

  • Steve Lidia

    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Diego Arbelaez

    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Wayne Greenway

    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Jin-Young Jung

    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Joe Kwan

    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Prabir Roy

    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Peter Seidl

    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Jeffrey Takakuwa

    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • William Waldron

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Alex Friedman

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • David Grote

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • William Sharp

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Erik Gilson

    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboraroty
    • Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

  • Pavel Ni

    • E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory