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A Vacuum Arc Ion Source for Heavy Ion Fusion Applications

Award Information
Agency: Department of Energy
Branch: N/A
Contract: N/A
Agency Tracking Number: 40172
Amount: $100,000.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: STTR
Solicitation Topic Code: N/A
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: N/A
Award Year: 1998
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): N/A
Award End Date (Contract End Date): N/A
Small Business Information
2235 Polvorosa Avenue Suite 230
San Leandr, CA 94577
United States
DUNS: N/A
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Dr. Niansheng Qi
 Senior Scientist
 (510) 483-4156
Business Contact
 Dr. Mahadevan Krishnan
Title: President
Phone: (510) 483-4156
Research Institution
 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
 
Sponsored Projects Office M/S 936B-223
Berkeley, CA 84720
United States

 Federally Funded R&D Center (FFRDC)
Abstract

A Vacuum Arc Ion Source for Heavy Ion Fusion Applications

DOE Grant No. DE-FG03-98ER86071
Amount: $100,000

Small Business
Alameda Applied Sciences Corp.
2235 Polvorosa Avenue
Suite 230
San Leandro, CA 94577-2249
Dr. Niansheng Qi, Principal Investigator
Dr. Mahadevan Krishnan, Business Official
(510) 483-4156
Research Institution
Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory
Sponsored Projects Office
M/S 936B-223
Berkeley, CA 84720
Thermionic ion sources have been the workhorse for the DOE heavy ion fusion (HIF) program but suffer from slow turn-on, heating problems for large areas and are limited to low ionization potential elements. Gas injection sources suffer from deleterious neutral gas effects. In order to overcome these limitations, this project will develop a high current vacuum arc ion source for HIF and other commercial applications. Prior attempts to develop a vacuum arc ion source were not embraced by the HIF community because the beam current fluctuations were too high and the reproducibility was poor. In previous research, it was demonstrated that a properly designed vacuum arc source could overcome these limitations. Phase I will modify the previously developed Gd ion source to increase the beam current from 0.12A to 0.5A. The following conditions will also be demonstrated: beam current noise =1%; beam uniformity =5%; pulse-pulse variation =1%. Lastly, and attempt will be made to tailor the discharge to produce beams with =95% ions in a single charge state and optimize the beam emittance to =0.4p-mm-mrad at =0.5A beam current.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The primary application should be an ion source for use within the DOE research community. The source could also find use in other fields in research and industry, for example as a source for materials surface characterization, for space propulsion, for experimental research in atomic physics, and in the nuclear physics community._

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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