Experimental studies of fast deuterons, impurity- and admixture-ions emitted from a plasma focus

The energy and mass analysis of ions emitted from a 50-kJ, 18-kV, plasma focus machine was performed with a Thomson analyzer. Energy distribution functions of fast deuterons (E⩽350 keV) and those of impurity ions have been determined. The energy distributions of the O, N, and C impurity ions in different ionization states have similar character. They usually increase exponentially and after reaching the maximum at E/Z≊1.0 MeV they decrease exponentially to E/Z≊1.8 MeV. For deuterons at lower operating pressures (p0⩽2 mbar) the energy distribution measured decreases exponentially from 0.35 to about 3.0 MeV. In some cases, independent of the operating pressure, the maximum energies of the distribution extend to 0.5–1.5 MeV only. With an argon admixture (up to 4.5%) Ar+-Ar7+ ions of energy from 0.5 to 14 MeV are produced.