Formation of Submillisecond Titanium Ion Beams with a High Pulsed Power Density

Abstract—The formation of pulsed and repetitively-pulsed high-intensity metal ion beams from vacuum arc plasma is numerically simulated and experimentally studied. The numerical simulation is performed using the KARAT code. The ballistic focusing of heavy ions at injection currents of 0.1–1 A is investigated. The influence of the ion current density, the accelerating voltage, and the conditions for neutralizing the space charge of a beam on the transport and focusing of a high-power-density ion beam has been studied. The conditions of appearance of a virtual anode are determined and studied. Multiple appearance and disappearance of a virtual anode are shown to occur at a long ion beam formation time and a low residual atmosphere pressure. The possibility of ballistic formation of submillisecond droplet-free titanium ion beams with a pulse power density of several hundreds of kilowatts per square centimeter has been experimentally shown.