Suppression of an unwanted flow of charged particles in a tandem accelerator with vacuum insulation

Abstract

A : In the construction of a tandem accelerator with vacuum insulation several changes were made. This allowed us to suppress the unwanted flow of charged particles in the accelerator, to improve its high-voltage stability, and to increase the proton beam current from 1.6 mA to 5 mA. K : Accelerator Applications; Instrumentation for neutron sources; Neutron sources 1Corresponding author.

Neutron Source Based on Vacuum Insulated Tandem Accelerator and Lithium Target

“…The additional gas flow makes it possible to visualize the beam for diagnostics of its position and size ( Figure 2 ) and improves the high-voltage strength of the accelerating gaps [ 8 ]. Of course, additional gas injection increases the undesirable flux of secondary charged particles, but this flux is reduced to an acceptable level by improving vacuum pumping and suppressing secondary electron emission from the walls of the vacuum chamber [ 16 ]. The flux of positive argon ions formed inside the gas stripper and penetrating into the accelerating gaps turned out to be extremely low: it was 2000 times less than the proton beam current [ 9 ].…”

“…The neutron source with specialized targets makes it possible to generate monochromatic γ-quanta [21] and resonance γ-quanta for the development of operational methods of explosives and drugs detection [46], α-particles for investigating promising neutron-less fusion 11 B(p,α)αα reaction [47], and positrons through 19 F(p,αe + e − ) 16 O reaction [48].…”

In Situ Observations of Blistering of a Metal Irradiated with 2-MeV Protons

“…The formation of these, and similar, blisters is likely to be associated with irradiation by the accompanying flux of positive argon ions with an energy of 1 MeV. This flux was formed within the gas stripping target that was placed inside a high-voltage terminal, through the interaction of the hydrogen ion beam on argon gas, rather than the 2-MeV proton beam irradiation [15,16]. Although the positive argon ion flux is small, due to both a lower energy and a larger mass, the penetration depth of argon ions is appreciably smaller, and blisters form at a significantly lower fluence.…”