Effect of tapered magnetic field on expanding laser-produced plasma for heavy-ion inertial fusion

A laser ion source (LIS) is a promising candidate as an ion source for heavy-ion inertial fusion (HIF), where a pulsed ultra-intense and low-charged heavy ion beam is required. It is a key development for a LIS to transport laser-produced plasma with a magnetic field to achieve a high-current beam. The effect of a tapered magnetic field on laser-produced plasma is demonstrated by comparing the results with a straight solenoid magnet. The magnetic field of interest is a wider aperture on a target side and narrower aperture on an extraction side. Based on the experimentally obtained results, the performance of a scaled LIS for HIF was estimated.

Particle-in-cell analysis of beam-wave interaction in gyrotron cavity with tapered magnetic field

A commercially available electromagnetic simulator — MAGIC, a particle-in-cell (PIC) code — has been used to carry out a comparative study of the beam-wave interaction under uniform and tapered magnetic field profiles of a 42 GHz, 200 kW gyrotron. The magnetic field profile across the resonant cavity varies by ±6.5% with a peak value of 1.615 T. The MAGIC simulation shows the desire performance of the gyrotron under both magnetic field conditions with an operating mode TE03 and a pitch factor of 1.26. The analysis of the simulated results show that stability in the power growth was reached more quickly and achieved higher output power in the case of a tapered magnetic field.