3D fluid model analysis on the generation of negative hydrogen ions for negative ion source of NBI

A radio-frequency(RF) inductively coupled negative hydrogen ion source(NHIS) has been adopted in the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor(CFETR) to generate negative hydrogen ions.By incorporating the level-lumping method into a three-dimensional fluid model,the volume production and transportation of H^(-) in the NHIS,which consists of a cylindrical driver region and a rectangular expansion chamber,are investigated self-consistently at a large input power(40 k W) and different pressures(0.3–2.0 Pa).The results indicate that with the increase of pressure,the H^(-) density at the bottom of the expansion region first increases and then decreases.In addition,the effect of the magnetic filter is examined.It is noteworthy that a significant increase in the H^(-) density is observed when the magnetic filter is introduced.As the permanent magnets move towards the driver region,the H^(-) density decreases monotonically and the asymmetry is enhanced.This study contributes to the understanding of H-distribution under various conditions and facilitates the optimization of volume production of negative hydrogen ions in the NHIS.

Influence of magnetic filter field on the radio-frequency negative hydrogen ion source of neutral beam injector for China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor

In the design of negative hydrogen ion sources,a magnetic filter field of tens of Gauss at the expansion region is essential to reduce the electron temperature,which usually results in a magnetic field of around 10 Gauss in the driver region,destabilizing the discharge.The magnetic shield technique is proposed in this work to reduce the magnetic field in the driver region and improve the discharge characteristics.In this paper,a three-dimensional fluid model is developed within COMSOL to study the influence of the magnetic shield on the generation and transport of plasmas in the negative hydrogen ion source.It is found that when the magnetic shield material is applied at the interface of the expansion region and the driver region,the electron density can be effectively increased.For instance,the maximum of the electron density is 6.7×10^(17)m^(-3)in the case without the magnetic shield,and the value increases to 9.4×10^(17)m^(-3)when the magnetic shield is introduced.

Numerical investigation of radio-frequency negative hydrogen ion sources by a three-dimensional fluid model

A three-dimensional fluid model is developed to investigate the radio-frequency inductively coupled H2 plasma in a reactor with a rectangular expansion chamber and a cylindrical driver chamber,for neutral beam injection system in CFETR.In this model,the electron effective collision frequency and the ion mobility at high E-fields are employed,for accurate simulation of discharges at low pressures(0.3 Pa-2 Pa)and high powers(40 kW-100 kW).The results indicate that when the high E-field ion mobility is taken into account,the electron density is about four times higher than the value in the low E-field case.In addition,the influences of the magnetic field,pressure and power on the electron density and electron temperature are demonstrated.It is found that the electron density and electron temperature in the xz-plane along permanent magnet side become much more asymmetric when magnetic field enhances.However,the plasma parameters in the yz-plane without permanent magnet side are symmetric no matter the magnetic field is applied or not.Besides,the maximum of the electron density first increases and then decreases with magnetic field,while the electron temperature at the bottom of the expansion region first decreases and then almost keeps constant.As the pressure increases from 0.3 Pa to 2 Pa,the electron density becomes higher,with the maximum moving upwards to the driver region,and the symmetry of the electron temperature in the xz-plane becomes much better.As power increases,the electron density rises,whereas the spatial distribution is similar.It can be summarized that the magnetic field and gas pressure have great influence on the symmetry of the plasma parameters,while the power only has little effect.

Transient Behavior of Negative Hydrogen Ion Extraction from Plasma

For plasma source, the extraction of negative ions is quite different from that of positive ions. To understand the effect of extraction field on plasma, the time-dependent behavior of negative hydrogen ion extraction from a negative ion source has been studied by particle-in-cell simulation in the collisionless limit. The simulations have shown that, due to the difference in dynamics between electrons and ions, the imbalance of the numbers of charged particles occurs in the source, results in the broadening of plasma sheath and the great increase of plasma potential. The resultant high sheath field and the ambipolar electric field in plasma make the negatively charged particles congregate inside the sheath and move toward the extraction outlet. The emission area of negative ions is much smaller than that of the extraction aperture, which is in sharp contrast to the case of positive ion extraction.

High accuracy calculation of the hydrogen negative ion in strong magnetic fields

Using a full configuration-interaction method with Hylleraas-Gaussian basis function, this paper investigates the 1^10^＋, 1^1（-1）^＋ and 1^1（-2）6＋ states of the hydrogen negative ion in strong magnetic fields. The total energies, electron detachment energies and derivatives of the total energy with respect to the magnetic field are presented as functions of magnetic field over a wide range of field strengths. Compared with the available theoretical data, the accuracy for the energies is enhanced significantly. The field regimes 3 〈 γ 〈 4 and 0.02 〈 γ 〈 0.05, in which the 1^1（-1）6＋ and 1^1（-2）^＋ states start to become bound, respectively, are also determined based on the calculated electron detachment energies.

A Study of a Confined Hydrogen Negative Ion

The ground and three low-excited states of the hydrogen negative ion confined by a spherical harmonic oscillator potential are studied employing the adiabatic hyperspherical approach method. Total energies are obtained as a function of the confined potential radii. We find that the confinement may cause accidental degeneracies between levels with different low-excited states and the inversion of the energy values.

Using short pulses to enhance the production rate of vibrationally excited hydrogen molecules in hydrogen discharge

Hydrogen discharges driven by the combined radio-frequency（rf）/short pulse sources are investigated using the particle-in-cell method.The simulation results show that the discharge driven additionally by the short pulse can enhance the electron density and modulate the electron energy to provide a better condition for negative hydrogen ion production than the discharge driven by the rf-only source.

Photodetachment of H^-near an elastic surface in a magnetic field

This paper investigates the photodetachment of the negative hydrogen ion H- near an elastic wall in a magnetic field. The magnetic field confines the perpendicular motion of the electron, which results in a real three-dimensional well for the detached electron. The analytical formulas for the cross section of the photodetachment in the three-dimensional quantum well are derived based on both the quantum approach and closed-orbit theory. The magnetic field and the elastic surface lead to two completely different modulations to the cross section of the photodetachment. The oscillation amplitude depends on the strength of the magnetic field, the ion-wall distance and the photon polarization as well. Specially, for the circularly polarized photon-induced photodetachment, the cross sections display a suppressed （E - Eth）1/2 threshold law with energy E in the vicinity above Landau energy Eta, contrasting with the （E - Eta）-1/2 threshold law in the presence of only the magnetic field. The semiclassical calculation fits the quantum result quite well, although there are still small deviations. The difference is attributed to the failure of semiclassical mechanics.

Particle-in-Cell with Monte CarloCollisions Gun Code Simulations of a Surface-Conversion H^(−)Ion Source

We present an extended update on the status of a particle-in-cellwithMonte Carlo collisions(PIC-MCC)gun code developed at LosAlamos for the study of surfaceconverter H−ion sources.The programis fully kinetic.Some of the program’s features include:solution of arbitrary electrostatic and magnetostatic fields in an axisymmetric(r,z)geometry to describe the self-consistent time evolution of a plasma;simulation of a multi-species(e^(−),H^(+),H^(+)_(2),H^(+)_(3),H^(−))plasma discharge from a neutral hydrogen gas and filament-originated seed electrons;full 2-dimensional(r,z)3-velocity(v_(r),v_(z),vφ)dynamics for all species;detailed collision physics between charged particles and neutrals and the ability to represent multiple smooth(not stair-stepped)electrodes of arbitrary shape and voltage whose surfaces may be secondary-particle emitters(H^(−)and e^(−)).The status of this development is discussed in terms of its physics content and current implementation details.

Re-examining Photodetachment of H^- near a Spherical Surface using Closed-Orbit Theory

Photodeachment of H^-near a reflective spherical surface was studied by Haneef et al.[J.Phys.B:At.Mol.Opt.Phys.44(2011)195004]using a theoretical imaging method.The total cross section displays interesting oscillations.Here we re-examine the total photodetachment cross section of this system by directly applying the standard closed-orbit theory.Our result for the total cross section differs from the result obtained by Haneef et al.The difference between the two results vanishes in the limit of large radius of the reflective sphere.We argue that the theoretical imaging method developed originally for photodetachment near a Hat surface can not be directly applied to the present system.