Low-emittance uniform density Cs+ sources for heavy ion fusion accelerators studies

Low-emittance (high-brightness) Cs+ thermionic sources were developed for the heavy ion induction linac experiment MBE-4 at LBL. The MBE-4 linac accelerates four 10 mA beams from 200 ke V to 900 ke V while amplifying the current up to a factor of nine. Recent studies of the transverse beam dynamics suggested that characteristics of the injector geometry were contributing to the normalized transverse emissions growth. Phase-space and current density distribution measurements of the beam extracted from the injector revealed overfocusing of the outermost rays causing a hollow density profile. We shall report on the performance of a 5 mA scraped beam source (which eliminates the outermost beam rays in the diode) and on the design of an improved 10 mA source. The new source is based on EGUN calculations which indicated that a beam with good emissions and uniform current density could be obtained by modifying the cathode Pierce electrodes and using a spherical emitting surface. The measurements of the beam current density profile on a test stand were found to be in agreement with the numerical simulations. 3 refs., 6 figs