The current and charge neutralization of charged particle beams by background plasma enable ballistic beam propagation and have a wide range of applications in inertial fusion and high energy density physics. However, the beam-plasma interaction can result in the development of collective instabilities that may have deleterious effects on ballistic propagation of an ion beam. In the case of fast, light-ion beams, non-linear fields created by instabilities can lead to significant defocusing of the beam. We study an ion beam pulse propagating in a background plasma, which is subjected to two-stream instability between the beam ions and plasma electrons, using PIC code LSP. The defocusing effects of the instability on the beam can be much more pronounced in small radius beams. We show through simulations that a beamlet produced from an ion beam passed through an aperture can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify the presence of the two-stream instability and quantify its defocusing effects. The effect can be observed on the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II facility by measuring the spot size of the extracted beamlet propagating through several meters of plasma.
Propagation of charged particle beams in background plasma as a method of space charge neutralization has been shown to achieve a high degree of charge and current neutralization and therefore enables nearly ballistic propagation and focusing of charged particle beams. Correspondingly, use of plasmas for propagation of charged particle beams has important applications for transport and focusing of intense particle beams in inertial fusion and high energy density laboratory plasma physics. However, the streaming of beam ions through a background plasma can lead to development of the two-stream instability between the beam ions and the plasma electrons. The beam electric and magnetic fields enhanced by the two-stream instability can lead to defocusing of the ion beam. Using particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we study the scaling of the instability-driven self-electromagnetic fields and consequent defocusing forces with the background plasma density and beam ion mass. We identify plasma parameters where the defocusing forces can be reduced.
The electron temperature gradient (ETG) mode is a very plausible candidate to explain the large electron particle transport and thermal conduction. Production and identification of slab ETG modes and measurement electron transport have been already reported [X. Wei, V. Sokolov, and A. K. Sen, Phys. Plasmas 17, 042108 (2010); V. Sokolov and A. K. Sen, Phys. Rev. Lett. (2011)]. Now, we develop a theoretical model of non-linear saturation mechanism of ETG mode based on the three wave coupling of an unstable high frequency ETG mode with a damped ETG radial harmonic and a damped ion acoustic (IA) mode. Bicoherence analysis of Columbia linear machine (CLM) data show coupling between ETG modes (∼2.4 MHz) and a low frequency mode (∼50 kHz). The large damping drive of the ETG radial harmonic accompanied by the smaller but finite damping of the IA mode presents an energy sink for the unstable ETG mode, thus causing saturation. This model predicts a saturation level of ∼10% and agrees with the observed levels of ETG modes in the CLM.
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