Multi-Stage Intense Ion Beam Electrostatic Accelerator for ICF

The design of a multi-aperture, channel focused, multi-stage low 8 electrostatic accelerator is made to produce well controlled intense light ion beams as drivers of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) targets. Unlike the case of diode accelerators, the Light Ion Fusion Experiment (LIFE) accelerator system contains separate-function elements to launch 3 to 10 MeV, 23 kA accelerated current, He+ beams in 400 ns pulses where 20:1 axial pulse compression would occur during the neutralized and ballistically focused transport. Each beam line would impart 50 kJ implosion energy in ~ 20 ns on 5-6 mm radius targets located 10 m downstream and a system of 40 beam lines would deliver 2 MJ. Methods of producing beam neutralization with initial electron temperature Teo, satisfying analytically derived constraints for both radial (45:1) and axial (20:1) pulse compressions during transport are given separately. Also, the development of a pulsed intense cold plasma ion source capable of producing 1 A/cm2 and Ti ~ 0.15 eV He+ beamlets over large extraction surfaces which is suitable for this application is presented in these proceedings.