ION SOURCES FOR INDUCTION LINAC DRIVEN HEAVY-ION FUSION

The use of ion sources in induction linacs for heavy ion fusion is fundamentally different from their use in the rf linac-storage rings approach. Induction linacs require very high current, short pulse extraction usually with large apertures which are dictated by the injector design. One is faced with the problem of extracting beams in a pulsed fashion while maintaining high beam quality during the pulse (low emittance). Four types of sources have been studied for this application. The vacuum arc and the rf cusp field source are the plasma-types and the porous plug and hot alumino-silicate surface source are the thermal types. The hot alumino-silicate potassium source has proved to be the best candidate for the next generation of scaled experiments. The porous plug for potassium is somewhat more difficult to use. The vacuum arc suffers from noise and lifetime problems and the rf cusp field source is difficult to use with very short pulses. Operational experience with all of these types of sources is presented.