Assessment of plasma uniformity in the extraction region of an RF-driven negative ion source for CRAFT NNBI

The uniformity of beam, for large RF negative ion source, is closely related to the plasma uniformity in the extraction region. The six electrostatic probes were installed above the plasma grid (PG) 5 mm to evaluate the plasma uniformity. The influence of RF power, source pressure, magnetic filter f...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xufeng Peng, Yongjian Xu, Yufan Li, Jianglong Wei, Guangyong Mei, Bo Liu, YuWen Yang, Na Wang, Junwei Xie, Yahong Xie, Lizhen Liang, Bin Wu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:Nuclear Fusion
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/adf11f
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The uniformity of beam, for large RF negative ion source, is closely related to the plasma uniformity in the extraction region. The six electrostatic probes were installed above the plasma grid (PG) 5 mm to evaluate the plasma uniformity. The influence of RF power, source pressure, magnetic filter field, and bias voltage on the plasma uniformity in the extraction region were analyzed. In the absence of magnetic filter field and bias voltage, the plasma density exhibits good uniformity (>90%), but the uniformity of electron temperature ( T _e ) is poor (>60%). It is mainly caused that the magnetic field was generated by the permanent magnet inside extraction grid (EG). The plasma density and T _e can be increased by increasing RF power, but it has little effect on the plasma uniformity. Increasing source pressure can effectively lower T _e and slightly improve its uniformity, but the uniformity of plasma density has deteriorated by increasing source pressure. While increasing the PG current effectively reduces the T _e in the extraction region, it simultaneously degrades the uniformity of both T _e and plasma density due to drift effects. Increasing the bias voltage can increase T _e in the extraction region when the PG current is 1200 A, but T _e at the bottom increases more significantly, thereby worsening the uniformity of T _e . In addition, the electron density ( N _e ) at the top decreases, while the N _e at the bottom increases, thereby improving the uniformity of N _e . The influence of the magnetic filtered field and bias voltage on the non-uniformity of T _e in the extraction region, as observed in the manuscript, is similar to the effect on the non-uniformity of the extracted beam current reported in the literature. These results provide theoretical foundations for optimizing the beam uniformity in large RF negative ion sources.
ISSN:0029-5515