Self-pinched transport of intense ion beams

Summary form only given. Electron beams with substantial net currents have been routinely propagated in the self-pinched mode for the past two decades. However, as the physics of gas breakdown and beam neutralization is different for ion beams, previous predictions indicated insufficient net current for pinching so that ion beam self-pinched transport (SPT) was assumed impossible. Nevertheless, recent numerical simulations using the IPROP code have suggested that ion SPT is possible. These results have prompted initial experiments to investigate SPT of ion beams. A 100-kA 1.2-MeV, 3-cm-radius proton beam, generated on the Gamble II pulsed-power accelerator at NRL, has been injected into helium in the 30- to 250-mTorr regime to study this phenomenon. Evidence of self-pinched ion beam transport was observed in the 35- to 80-mTorr SPT pressure window predicted by IPROP.