Operating characteristics of the low energy accelerator

The main purpose of this work is to describe the construction and operation of the low energy accelerator with energy in the range from (zero to 100 K eV). This accelerator includes an ion source of the cold cathode Penning ty pe (with pierce geometry for ion beam extraction), an accelerating tube (wi th 8 electrodes) and Faraday cup (FC) for measuring ion current. A vacuum s ystem which gives vacuum of the order 3.0 x 10(-8) Torr is used. A palladiu m tube is used to supply the source with pure hydrogen atoms. It was possib le to operate this accelerator with an energy 50 KeV at minimum hydrogen pr essure, 6.3 X 10(-6) Torr. The total resistance applied between the acceler ating electrodes R-T = 31.5 M Omega. These data include the influence of th e pressure in the accelerating tube, the magnetic field of the ion source, the extraction potential and the accelerating potential on the collector io n current. It was possible to accelerate protons with an energy 50 KeV with current about 100 muA at pressure 6.3 x 10-6 Torr, the source magnetic fie ld = 110 G (I-B = 2A), the are current = 0.4 A and the extraction potential = 10 KV.