Experiments in Belfast Relevant to Fusion Diagnostics

A number of ion beam accelerators are being used in this laboratory to study charge transfer, ionization and excitation in ion-atom collision processes at energies ranging from ~ 100 eV to 2500 keV. Techniques include beam-static gas target, intersecting beam and both optical and energy loss/gain spectroscopy. Collisions involving hydrogen atoms are of particular interest. Some of the measurements are relevant to the diagnostics and modelling of high temperature plasmas in magnetic confinement devices and to schemes to promote inertial fusion by heavy ions.