Formation of High Charge State Heavy Ion Beams with intense Space Charge

High charge-state heavy-ion beams are of interest and used for a number of accelerator applications. Some accelerators produce the beams downstream of the ion source by stripping bound electrons from the ions as they pass through a foil or gas. Heavy-ion inertial fusion (HIF) would benefit from low-emittance, high current ion beams with charge state >1. For these accelerators, the desired dimensionless perveance upon extraction from the emitter is ∼10-3, and the electrical current of the beam pulse is ∼1 A. For accelerator applications where high charge state and very high current are desired, space charge effects present unique challenges. For example, in a stripper, the separation of charge states creates significant nonlinear space-charge forces that impact the beam brightness. We will report on the particle-in-cell simulation of the formation of such beams for HIF, using a thin stripper at low energy.