Operating experience with the laser ion source relevant the HIF application

Abstract

Since March 2014, a laser ion source (LIS) has been used to provide high brightness low charge state heavy ion beams for regular routine operation of the hadron accelerator complex in Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL)[1]. The peak current and pulse width of the typical beams from the LIS are several hundreds of microampere and about 200 microseconds, respectively. Of course, these specifications cannot be directly applied to the HIF. However, only by reducing the plasma drift distance to one tenth, the beam current and pulse width will become 1000 times and 1/10 respectively and these values are not far from the HIF’s requirements. Therefore, it would be useful to discuss some operational difficulties and to investigate what should be improved in the existing LIS in BNL toward the HIF application...