Tight Focusing of Intense Pulsed Light-Ion Beam by Spherical “Plasma Focus Diode”

A new type of ion-beam diode, a self-magnetically insulated, spherical plasma focus diode was developed. With this diode, point focusing of an intense pulsed light-ion beam was obtained. Diagnostic results showed that the ion beam (0.8 MeV, 68 kA) was focused into a small cylinder with ∼0.5 mm diameter and ∼2.5 mm length. The estimated ion-beam current density and the power density were ∼680 kA/cm2 and ∼0.54 TW/cm2, respectively.