Plasma channel transport for heavy ion fusion: Investigation of beam transport, channel initiation and stability

For final beam transport in an IFE reactor three alternatives are mainly discussed. These are neutralized ballistic transport, serf-pinched transport, and plasma channel transport. Discharge plasma channels were investigated in the recent years at GSI Darmstadt and at LBNL Berkeley in a number of experiments. Different initiation mechanisms for gas discharges of up to 60 kA were studied and compared. In the Berkeley experiments laser ionization of organic vapors in a buffer gas was used to initiate and direct the discharge while at GSI laser gas heating and ion beam induced gas ionization were tested as initiation mechanisms. Measurements of temperature, electron density, gas density, and magnetic field distribution in the channels are compared with results of beam transport experiments at the GSI UNILAC accelerator and with MHD simulations of the ID-fluidcode CYCLOPS, which was developed in Berkeley. Good agreement between plasma diagnostics results, measured ion optical properties and MHD simulations was found. Parameters that are required for a reactor application are a discharge current of 50 kA, a channel diameter below 1 cm, a pointing stability better than 500 μm, and MHD stability for more than 10 μs. These parameters have been demonstrated in the recent experiments. The results imply that transport channels work with sufficient stability, reproducibility and ion optical properties in a wide pressure range and for various discharge gases.