Cornell intense ion beam program

Intense ion beam research at Cornell has three major objectives: (1) to seek improvements in ion diode technology so that ion beams of high brightness can be extracted, (2) to determine the potential of such beams for pellet fusion, and (3) to create field reversed ion rings for magnetic fusion. With respect to the first objective two new magnetically insulated diode configurations, viz. the “field exclusion” and “field inclusion” diodes, have been developed. The focusing of these beams by shaping of ion emission surfaces and also by a magnetic lens has been investigated. With regard to the third objective intense ion beams have been injected transverse to a magnetic field and observed to propagate electrostatically neutralized in ballistic orbits. Measurements of the diamagnetic field show that no significant magnetic neutralization occurs. Numerical computations show that an ion ring can be trapped resistively and a major experiment to trap an ion ring is under construction.