IFA-2 Collective Ion Accelerator Experiments

Ion acceleration has now been demonstrated with the IFA-2 collective ion accelerator system. The IFA-2 system is described, photoionization experiments are summarized, and ion results are presented. Using a 1 MeV electron beam and a 30 cm acceleration length, IFA-2 has produced 5 MeV H+, 10 MeV D+, and 20 MeV He++. This means that accelerating fields of 33 MV/m over 30 cm have been achieved with a controlled collective accelerator for the first time.