Turbulent Heating of Plasmas by High Energy Particle Beams.
Abstract
During the performance period on this contract, 30 June 1976, substantial progress has been made in our research on the interactions of high energy beams of charged particles. The mechanisms and efficiency of energy transfer have been investigated from relativistic electron beams to much denser, high-z target plasmas. Provided that the beam quality is sufficiently well controlled, optimization of the primary beam-plasma interaction, through selection of beam density and energy, should permit at least 15% of the beam energy to be deposited during a single pass in targets near 100,000 times as dense as the beam. Estimation of ionization and radiation processes indicate that a beam-heated plasma source of multi-kilojoule, multigigawatt radiation in the 10 - 10,000 eV portion of the photon energy spectrum may be achievable. More recently a number of calculations have been completed relevant to the development of collective ion accelerators. Required conditions have been determined for both equilibria and stability of powerful, unneutralized electron beams propagating along a magnetic guide field. Also studied were the collective ionelectron cyclotron interaction which can occur between a non-neutral ultra-relativistic electron beam and a less dense species of ions. Various regimes of this interaction have been investigated, and in one important regime for which the instability growth rate is less than the transverse bounce frequency of the ions in the radial electric field of the electron beam, two dimensional computer simulations have been performed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1976
- Accession Number
- ADA030176
Entities
People
- D. E. Hasti
- G. I. Bourianoff
- J. R. Thompson
- M. L. Sloan
- W. E. Drummond