Intensity improvements of pulsed source of polarized negative hydrogen ions

The intensity of a polarized negative hydrogen ion source of the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been increased due to the decrease of the destruction of polarized negative hydrogen ions in plasma ionizer and the improvements in the atomic beam stage of the source. A polarized H− ion current of 3.8mA peak with pulse duration of 170μs full width at half maximum at 5Hz repetition rate has been obtained. An unpolarized D− ion current extracted from the plasma ionizer together with a polarized ion beam was 70mA, and the respective electron current was ∼150mA. The efficiency of the conversion of polarized hydrogen atoms into polarized negative hydrogen ions reached 12%. The polarization of the H− beam has been measured to be 0.91±0.03. The figure of merit P2I of the polarized negative hydrogen ion beam obtained has record value of 3.15mA.