Successful Betatron Acceleration of Kiloampere Electron Rings in RECE-Christa

This paper describes first experiments in which the strong electron rings normally trapped in the RECE-Christa device are accelerated in a plasmabetatron-like arrangement. Using a cold collisional background plasma (Te = 1-2 eV, np = 1011-1012 cm-3) generated by the ring in a gas fill of 50 - 200mTorr H2, electron rings with currents of up to 2 kA were accelerated from about 1 MeV to 2.5-3 MeV. It appears that this method may be useful in significantly extending the parameter range of betatrons, in particular its ring current into the 10 kA range.