Speaker
Description
A high-intensity proton accelerator facility requires a high current pulsed negative hydrogen ion source. A Cs-free, negative hydrogen ion source has been developed using inductively coupled discharge technique in pulsed mode by 2 MHz RF external antenna. The RF power coupling to the plasma is enhanced by introducing C-shaped ferrite core around the RF antenna. No external multi-cusp magnetic field is used for plasma confinement, since the magnetic field generated by RF antenna current itself confines the plasma. For high duty factor operation efficient water cooling arrangement is implemented for plasma chamber, RF antenna, ferrite core, plasma electrode, ignitor etc. The presentation will cover, full power testing of solid state RF source, RF antenna and ferrites, cooling arrangement of plasma chamber and biased faraday cup, remote control operation and beam spot measurements. This source is operated at 10 Hz repetition rate, 2 ms pulse duration and 50 keV beam energy and extracted negative hydrogen ion beam current of 20 mA. The key experimental results will be reported in the presentation.
