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Small barium rail gun for plasma injection.
1Department of Physics, University of California, Irvine, California 92717, USA.
The Review of Scientific Instruments
|March 1, 1980
Summary
A novel barium electrode rail gun achieves high-repetition-rate ion production. Performance enhances with stronger magnetic fields for plasma injection, demonstrating potential for advanced ion sources.
Area of Science:
- Plasma Physics
- Ion Beam Generation
- Materials Science
Background:
- Rail guns are devices that use electromagnetic force to accelerate projectiles.
- Barium is a chemical element with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56.
- Ion sources are crucial for various applications, including mass spectrometry and particle accelerators.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the performance of a small rail gun utilizing a barium electrode.
- To explore the effect of external magnetic fields on plasma injection and rail gun operation.
- To determine the optimal magnetic field strength for enhanced ion production.
Main Methods:
- A small rail gun equipped with a barium electrode was employed.
- The rail gun was operated at a repetition rate exceeding one shot per second.
- An external magnetic field was applied to facilitate cross-field plasma injection into a trap.
- Magnetic field strengths up to 7 kG were examined.
Main Results:
- The rail gun successfully produced over 2x10^16 barium ions per shot.
- The ions were generated with energies in the range of 10-20 eV.
- Rail gun performance, measured by ion production and energy, improved with increasing magnetic field strength.
- The cross-field plasma injection mechanism was validated.
Conclusions:
- The barium electrode rail gun is capable of high-repetition-rate operation for ion generation.
- External magnetic fields significantly enhance the performance of this rail gun system.
- The findings suggest potential for developing more efficient and powerful ion sources based on this technology.
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