Progress on the development of the CHAMP plasma accelerator

Summary form only given. The continuous high average-power microsecond pulser (CHAMP) plasma accelerator is being developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The CHAMP accelerator uses a ballistically focused, magnetically insulated extraction diode for the plasma source. Four primary systems work in sequence to produce an ion beam namely, the gas puff, the anode induction coil pulse, the magnetic insulation field coil pulse, and the accelerator pulse. Most of the assembly and testing of CHAMP has occurred in the past 12 months. This includes plasma characterization for a static backfill, puff gas fill modeling and experimental characterization, puff fill plasma characterization, and beam extraction. This report details the progress of the assembly and testing as well as describes planned experiments and future upgrades. Most significant of the upgrades is the transition to continuous beam pulse operation.