Active plasma source formation in the MAP diode

Abstract

The ion beam surface treatment (IBEST) program is exploring using ion beams to treat the surface of a wide variety of materials. These experiments have shown that improved corrosion resistance. Surface hardening, grain size modification, polishing and surface cleaning can all be achieved using a pulsed 0.4-0.8 MeV ion beam delivering 1-10 J/cm/sup 2/. The magnetically-confined anode plasma (MAP) diode, developed at Cornell University, produces an active plasma which can be used to treat the surfaces of materials. The diode consists of a fast puff valve as the source of gas to produce the desired ions and two capacitively driven B-fields. A slow magnetic field is used for electron insulation and a fast field is used to both ionize the puffed gas and to position the plasma in the proper spatial location in the anode prior to the accelerator pulse. The relative timing between subsystems is an important factor in the effective production of the active plasma source for the MAP diode system. The MAP diode has been characterized using a Langmuir probe to measure plasma arrival times at the anode annulus for hydrogen gas. This data was then used to determine the optimum operating point for the MAP diode on RHEPP-1 accelerator shots. Operation of the MAP diode system to produce an ion beam of 500 kV, 12 kA with 40% efficiency (measured at the diode) has been demonstrated.