High ion-acceleration by employing a low-γ intense electron-beam

Analyses of results of ion acceleration employing intense electron-beam revealed that the nucleon energy attained per unit energy investment scaled inversely with γ. Total energy scaling is supported by a potential well sustained over a long distance by suitable beam-duration. Following this, a low γ~1.49, 6 kA, 40 ns FWHM electron beam from KALI-200 was focused into a short dielectric collimator and propagated in vacuum for durations of 15-150 ns, and ions were accelerated to nucleon energy over 20-30 MeV/kJ with ion current ~kA/kJ. The enhancement in ion energy was also attributed to the low-γ assisted peak Poisson field E_z~C₀I_e/β_ecδ, small well-length δ∝β_e, and ion-charge multiplication. The minimum γ is decided by desired high electric field for intense electron-beam generation by field emission and maximum multiple ionizations