DEVELOPMENT OF A 2-BEAM ELECTRON-ION ACCELERATOR BASED ON THE DOPPLER-EFFECT

A theory of a novel high-current ion accelerator is developed, in whic h the accelerating and focusing fields are excited by electron beams d ue to the cyclotron instability related to either anomalous or normal Doppler effect. The results of both theoretical and numerical studies shows the advantage of this method of ion acceleration, which enables an acceleration rate of 10-100 MeV/m, an ion energy of 10-100 MeV, and an ion current of 1-10 A. The engineering design of an experimental a ccelerator is developed. The accelerator will have the following param eters: the energy of the electron beam 350 keV, the current 150 A, the pulse duration 2.5 mu s, the wave frequency 150 MHz, and the wave amp litude 56 kV/cm; the proton beam is assumed to be accelerated from 5 t o 8 MeV. At present, the Ural-5 accelerator-injector operates with an energy of 5 MeV; preliminary experiments are being carried out, and th e accelerator is under construction.