Summary form only given. Experiments with a POS (plasma opening switch) operating in the nanosecond regime applied to a 0.5-TW accelerator have been conducted with different loads (electron or ion diodes, inductive load). The accelerator parameters in negative pulse polarity were 0.7 MV, 0.7-Ω impedance, and 60-ns pulse duration. The POS with a 90% transparent squirrel cage and 160-mm-diameter anode used a flashboard plasma source installed at a diameter of 320 mm, having four sections with three rows each of spark gaps. The plasma ion flow density provided 150 A/cm2 with 10-15-cm/μs velocity. With an inductive load of 15 nH the voltage enhancement reached a factor of 2, the POS impedance being 15 Ω. With the electron diode the voltage amplitude equaled 1.5 MV, with a switched current of up to 600 kA and a load pulse duration (measured by the p-i-n diode) of 20-30 ns. Ion beam generation was realized in the pinch-reflex diode with a passive plasma source on the anode

An experimental study of the production of intense ion beams in a reflex triode with an external plasma source at the anode is reported. The ions had various ratios Z/M. When the anode plasma is produced in a preliminary charging pulse of the accelerator, the plasma density is too low for operation under charge-limited emission conditions. In this case, an ion beam is observed to be produced from the plasma formed by the direct heating of the anode material by oscillating electrons. When an anode plasma resulting from the breakdown of a dielectric insert or of the vacuum gap of a composite andode by an external voltage source is used to produce an ion beam, the reflex triode operating conditions depend on delaying the operation of the accelerator with respect to the external source. The highest efficiency (approx. =20%) in the production of an ion beam is observed at t/sub d/ = 3--6 ..mu..s. In this case, the reflex triode operates under increasing or constant impedance conditions. It was shown in the course of the experiments that the ion beam which is produced is nonuniform. There are three groups of ions: H/sup +/, C/sup n//sup +/, and Cu/sup n//sup +/.more » The energy of the heavy ions depends on the applied anode potential. The different mass components of the ion beam do not appear at the same time. The macroscopic divergence of the beam is 4--6/sup 0/ at the periphery and drops off to approx. <1/sup 0/ at the center. The microscopic divergence of the beam is 3/sup 0/. The total energy of the ion beam which is produced is less than 120 J at an average current approx. =2.8 kA.« less

Experiments on the production of nanosecond-length ion beams in an accelerator with a plasma-erosion opening switch are reported. This switch made it possible to reduce the length of the voltage pulse from 2 ..mu..s to 50--70 ns. The maximum energy of the ion beam was 6 kJ at a voltage of 2.5 MeV. The relative efficiency of the ion production was epsilon-c/sub i/ = I/sub i//(I/sub i/+I/sub e/) = 0.4--0.5. The efficiency in terms of the energy in the inductive store was 10--15%.

When dense (p = 0.5–2.5 atm) helium was pumped by a proton beam (j = 2–12 A/cm2), stimulated emission was observed for the first time as a result of 4–3 (λ = 468.5 nm) and 5–3 (λ = 320 nm) transitions in helium-like He II ions. Amplification was observed in a quasistationary supercooled plasma due to recombination pumping of the upper active levels.

An investigation was made of the processes of collective acceleration of protons in vacuum in a system with an insulated anode and trans-anode electrodes, which were insulated or grounded, in high-current Tonus and Vera electron accelerators. The influence of external conditions and parameters of the electron beam on the efficiency of acceleration processes was investigated. Experiments were carried out in which protons were accelerated in a system with trans-anode electrodes. A study was made of the influence of a charge prepulse and of the number of trans-anode electrodes on the energy of the accelerated electrons. A system with a single anode produced Np=1014 protons of 2Ee < Ep < 3Ee energy. Suppression of a charge prepulse increased the proton energy to (6–8)Ee and the yield was then 1013. The maximum proton energy of 14Ee was obtained in a system with three trans-anode electrodes. A possible mechanism of proton acceleration was analyzed. The results obtained were compared with those of other investigations. Ways of increasing the efficiency of this acceleration method were considered.

The first part of this paper is devoted to the problems of intense ion beam generation in reflex diode systems and the second part is dedicated to the subject of collective ion acceleration in the linear electron beams (relativistic electron beams), drifting in the natural gas. All data were taken on two pulsers: 1 MV, 20 ohm, 50 ns andd 400 kV, 7 ohm, 80 ns. The diagnostics included voltage and current monitors, ion biased and time of flight probes, foil-range spectrometer, image convertor and standard equipment for activation studies.

Experiments are described of ion acceleration in diode with insulated anode mounted on two E-beam generators that deliver 2kJ and 1 kJ of energy in 1 MeV; 50 ns and 0.35 MeV, 80 ns pulses accoraingly. The maximum yield of protons 1014±3.1013 with energy in (1.9 + 2.7) MeV range were measured with accompanying electron beam current 18 kA and electron energy 0.8 MeV on 2 kJ maching. The suppression of charging prepulse by inserting a dielectric piece in cathode terminal on it resulted in increased ion energy up to 5 MeV and total yield of protons with energy in the (2.7 + 5) MeV region up to 1013±3.12 By application of several (from 1 to 3) post anode electrodes on 1 kJ machine the. energy of ions were increased up to 4.2 MeV, which corresponds to (Ei/Ee)max = 14.Reproducibility and effectiveness of acceleration processes were investigated.