Development of electrostatic quadrupoles for heavy ion fusion

High-voltage electrostatic quadrupoles are used for focusing ion beams at low energies in the induction linac approach to heavy ion driven inertial confinement fusion for the production of electrical power. The transportable beam line charge density depends linearly on the operating voltage of the quadrupoles, so an experimental program was conducted to find the voltage breakdown dependence on the overall size of the quadrupoles which would then allow determination of the best geometry and operating voltage. The quadrupole electrodes are usually stainless steel cylinders with hemispherical end caps, mounted on stainless steel end plates. The end plates are precisely positioned with respect to each other and the vacuum chamber with alumina insulators with shielded triple points. It is advantageous for beam transport to employ an array of multiple beams for which a rather large number of interdigitated electrodes forms an array of quadrupoles. The trade-offs between very large numbers of small channels and a smaller number of large channels, and the dependence of the choice on the voltage breakdown dependence is discussed. With present understanding, the optimum is about 100 beamlets focused with quadrupoles which have a beam aperture radius of about 2.3 cm and art operated with about 150 kV between electrodes.