Operation of a high repetition rate intense ion beam diode

Summary form only given, as follows. A magnetically insulated diode has been developed that is capable of pulsing at a high repetition rate for short bursts. This diode has a plasma-anode ion source which originates as an annular puff of H₂ or some other gas. The gas puff is preionized and then inductively broken down by a 1 μs-risetime magnetic field coil. This same field coil magnetically drives the resulting plasma toward a magnetically insulated acceleration gap. A ~100-kV, 20-40-kA, ≲100-ns acceleration voltage pulse is applied to the gap to generate the beam. The annular plasma has a mean radius of 8.5 cm, and the ion beam is extracted from an area of ≲200 cm². The pulsed power systems that drive this diode at high repetition rates are based upon saturable inductor switching. The anode plasma´s temperature and density have been measured by spectroscopic techniques as a function of repetition rate and shot number within a burst. How the plasma parameters vary with diode operating conditions, such as gas puff pressure or insulating field strength, was investigated. In addition, these plasma parameters have been compared with the parameters of the extracted beam