A hollow tube cathode using lanthanum hexaboride as the electron emitter has been designed and constructed. Tests in both argon and hydrogen indicate that this cathode is capable of producing over 800 A of electron current continuously, corresponding to over 25 A/cm(2) from the LaB(6). The cathode has been operated for over 300 h and exposed to air more than 100 times with no deterioration in emission. Projected lifetime is in excess of 3500 h for the sintered LaB(6) piece tested in this configuration. Construction details, performance characteristics, and discussions of space charge limits on emission are described.
The plasma production and containment system for a high-power continuously operating magnetic multipole ion source has been designed and constructed. Preliminary tests on this system prior to high voltage extraction of large beams indicate advantageous performance for neutral-beam injection applications. The source has produced 80 A to the extractor region at 0.33 A/cm2 with a discharge of 330 A at 80 V. Density uniformity is better than 1% over a 16-cm diameter, dropping to −4% at 18 cm, with plasma noise of less than 3%. Gas utilizaion efficiency and atomic (H+) species output are anticipated to be high due to a source length of 40 cm. This quiet efficient performance is attributed to the use of a hollow-tube LaB6 cathode and an improved magnetic multipole confinement system.
The implosion dynamics of compact wire arrays on Saturn are explored as a function of wire mass m, wire length g, wire radii R, and radial power-flow feed geometry using the ZORK code. Electron losses and the likelihood of arcing in the radial feed adjacent the wire load are analyzed using the TWOQUICK and CYLTRAN codes. The physical characteristics of the implosion and subsequent thermal radiation production are estimated using the LASNEX code in one dimension. These analyses show that compact tungsten wire arrays with parameters suggested by D. Mosher and with a 21-nil vacuum feed geometry satisfy the empirical scaling criterion 1/(m/g)~2 MA/(mg/cm) of Mosherfor optimizing non-thermal radiation from z pinches, generate low electron losses in the radial feeds, and generate electric fields at the insulator stack below the Charlie Martin flashover limit thereby permitting full power to be delivered to the load. Under such conditions, peak currents of~5 MA can be delivered to wire loads-20 ns before the driving voltage reverses at the insulator o stack, potentially allowing the m = 0 instability to develop with the subsequent emission of non-thermal radiation as predicted by the Mosher model.
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