Development of a compact Helicon ion source for a neutron generator

Summary form only given, as follows. Summary form only given. A compact Helicon ion source has been developed for a neutron generator, which makes use of D-D nuclear fusion reaction on the copper based Ti target bombarded with an energetic deuterium beam. For high neutron yield, high-current ion beams need to be extracted from high-density plasma sources such as a helicon plasma source known for its high efficiency of generating high-density plasmas. Plasma densities of 10/sup 12/ cm/sup -3/ are obtained with 2 kW RF power at the frequency of 13.56 MHz. Permanent magnets are installed to provide sufficient axial magnetic fields for the helicon mode operation. Langmuir probes and optical emission spectroscopy are used to examine plasma characteristics such as plasma density and electron temperature for the optimization of high-current ion beam extraction. Ion beam currents of a few tens of mA have been extracted at the extraction voltage of 30kV.