The cornell Field-reversed Ion Ring Experiment FIREX: Experimental design and first results

The goal of FiREX (Field-reversed Ion Ring Experiment) is to produce a fully field-reversed ring with 1 MeV protons. Such a ring requires about 2–3× 10¹⁷ protons, or 30–50 mC of charge. This charge is to be injected as an annular proton beam through a suitable magnetic cusp configuration to produce a compact ring. We describe here the critical design issues for the ion beam accelerator. First experimental results of ion diode operation indicate that the design is capable of producing the required beam parameters.