REPETITIVE HIGH-CURRENT DENSITY PSEUDOSPARK-PRODUCED ION-BEAMS

A multigap pseudospark device filled with hydrogen or argon gas is operated up to 20 kV and ejected ion beam characteristics are experimentally investigated. The ion beam of peak current density in excess of approximately 500 A/cm2 and pulse duration approximately 50 ns is extracted at repetitive frequency of several tens of Hz. Results of the scaling study for the ion beam current with breakdown voltage, external capacitance, and number of insulator gaps are presented.