Hydrogen beam extraction of penning ion source for compact neutron generator

Abstract

Penning ion source was made for applying a compact neutron generator. Electrical and vacuum system was assembled to test the ion source. As a preliminary test, a hydrogen gas using a mass flow system was inserted to produce plasma into the ion source and the plasma was produced and the hydrogen ion beams were extracted successfully. Operation conditions such as anode voltage, pressure change, and extraction voltage were changed to extract a higher current of the hydrogen ion beams and the highest current was achieved to be 0.9 mA at 0.0021 mbar (40 sccm) and 7.5 kV anode biased voltage. Some details on the operation conditions of the penning ion source were discussed.