NEGATIVE ION-BASED NEUTRAL BEAM INJECTOR

• US 20170135194A1
• Filed: 01/25/2017
• Published: 05/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tae Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Tri Alpha Energy, Inc.
• Inventors: Belchenko, Yuri I., Burdakov, Alexander V., Davydenko, Vladimir I., Dimov, Gennady I., Ivanov, Alexander A., Kobets, Valeery V., Smirnov, Artem N., Binderbauer, Michl W., Sevier, Donald L., Richardson, Terrence E.
• Granted Patent: US 9,924,587 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H05H 3/02 Molecular or atomic beam generation charge exchange devices G21K1/14; polarising devices G21K1/16; using resonance or molecular beams for analysing or investigating materials G01N24/002; atomic clock G04F5/14; beam masers H01S1/06

Abstract

A negative ion-based neutral beam injector comprising a negative ion source, accelerator and neutralizer to produce about a 5 MW neutral beam with energy of about 0.50 to 1.0 MeV. The ions produced by the ion source are pre-accelerated before injection into a high energy accelerator by an electrostatic multi-aperture grid pre-accelerator, which is used to extract ion beams from the plasma and accelerate to some fraction of the required beam energy. The beam from the ion source passes through a pair of deflecting magnets, which enable the beam to shift off axis before entering the high energy accelerator. After acceleration to full energy, the beam enters the neutralizer where it is partially converted into a neutral beam. The remaining ion species are separated by a magnet and directed into electrostatic energy converters. The neutral beam passes through a gate valve and enters a plasma chamber.

Claims

1. A negative ion-based neutral beam injector comprises

an ion source configured to produce a negative ion beam,

a pre-accelerator,

a high energy accelerator interconnected to and spaced apart from the pre-accelerator and ion source, and

a neutralizer interconnected to the high energy accelerator.

2. The injector of claim 1, wherein the pre-accelerator is an electrostatic multi aperture grid in the ion source.

3. The injector of claim 1, further comprising a pair of deflecting magnets interposing the pre-accelerator and high energy accelerator, wherein the pair of deflecting magnets enables a beam from the pre-accelerator to shift off axis before entering the high energy accelerator.

4. The injector of claim 1, wherein the ion source includes a plasma box, wherein internal walls of the plasma box are maintainable at elevated temperatures of about 150-200°

C.

5. The injector of claim 2, further comprising a distributing manifold for directly supplying cesium on the multi aperture grid of the pre-accelerator.

6. The injector of claim 1, wherein the pre-accelerator includes external magnets to deflect co-extracted electrons in an ion extraction and pre-acceleration regions.

7. The injector of claim 1, further comprising a pumping system to pump gas out from a pre-acceleration gap.

8. The injector of claim 2, wherein the multi aperture grid is positively biased to repel back streaming positive ions.

9. The injector of claim 1, wherein the high energy accelerator is spaced apart from the ion source by a transition zone comprising a low energy beam transport line.

10. The injector of claim 9, wherein the low energy beam transport line includes cesium traps.

11. The injector of claim 11, wherein the low energy beam transport line includes bending magnets that deflect and focus the beam onto the axis of the high energy accelerator.

12. A negative ion-based neutral beam injector comprises

an ion source adapted to produce a negative ion beam,

a pre-accelerator coupled to the ion source,

a high energy accelerator,

a pair of deflecting magnets, interposing the pre-accelerator and high energy accelerator, wherein the pair of deflecting magnets enables a beam from the pre-accelerator to shift off axis before entering the high energy accelerator, and

a neutralizer coupled interconnected to the high energy accelerator.

13. The injector of claim 12, further comprising a plurality of magnets externally coupled to the pre-accelerator to deflect co-extracted electrons in an ion extraction and pre-acceleration regions.

14. The injector of claim 12, wherein the ion source includes a plasma box having internal walls maintainable at elevated temperatures of about 150-200°

C.

15. The injector of claim 12, wherein the pre-accelerator comprises an electrostatic multi aperture grid.

16. The injector of claim 15, the further comprising a distributing manifold for directly supplying cesium on the electrostatic multi aperture grid.

17. The injector of claim 12, wherein the pre-accelerator comprises external magnets to deflect co-extracted electrons in an ion extraction and pre-acceleration regions.

18. The injector of claim 12, further comprising cesium traps interposing the pre-accelerator and the high energy accelerator.

19. The injector of claim 12, wherein the neutralizer includes a plasma neutralizer comprising a multi-cusp plasma confinement system with high field permanent magnets.

20. The injector of claim 12, wherein the neutralizer includes a photon neutralizer comprising a cylindrical cavity with reflective walls.

21. The injector of claim 12, further comprising a residual ion energy recuperator.