Surface-plasma source of intense fluxes of accelerated atoms

The emission of streams of accelerated atoms from a glow discharge in hydrogen with a cesium mixture has been studied. The streams occur because the cesium intensifies the surface-plasma mechanism for the formation of negative ions. The operation of a surface-plasma source of accelerated atoms with a ''semiplanotron'' electrode configuration has been studied. A pulsed barretter with a sensitivity of 1 mA/J was used to measure the flux density. The atoms underwent charge exchange into neagative ions in a cesium target for measurement of the energy distribution. The source generates accelerated atoms with energies in the range 200--600 eV, determined by the discharge voltage. The efficiency of the source increases greatly as the cesium supply rate is increased. Beams of accelerated hydrogen atoms with an equivalent current of 2.7 A and an emission density up to 3 A/cm2 have been obtained at a discharge voltage of 200 V