Collective Acceleration Investigations with the Ionization Front Accelerator

Part I of a three part program to demonstrate feasibility of the Ionization Front Accelerator (IFA) has been completed, and is successful. Experiments describing intense relativistic electron beam (IREB) propagation in Cs are reported. The threshold pressure for electron beam ionization of Cs is found to agree with earlier theoretical predictions. These results experimentally establish Cs as a feasible working gas for the IFA. Numerical simulation results are also reported which demonstrate controlled potential well motion and collective ion acceleration with the IFA.