Recent developments of long pulse RF ion sources for NBI systems

For the new radial injector of the Wendelstein 7-AS stellerator, two medium size 40 kW RF sources (‘W7-AS RF source’) have been built and tested. A positive hydrogen ion beam of 28 A at 50 kV with a proton fraction of 60% has been extracted. For future injection systems, in particular those based on negative ions, large area beam extraction and long pulse capability up to cw operation are envisaged. At IPP two different design concepts of RF sources are being investigated in order to meet these requirements: in the first one, the plasma is generated in one or two small circular RF sources (‘drivers’), which are mounted onto the back plate of a 30 l expansion volume (‘bucket’) with magnetic multi-cusp confinement of the plasma (‘Type 6-1’ and ‘Type 6-2’ respectively). In the second concept the plasma is generated inside the bucket by an internal RF coil, which is insulated by a quartz tube (‘Type 5’). In both cases the applicability for negative as well as for positive ion production is being tested. The next application will be in the positive ion based injectors in the third injector of JET and in the W7X stellerator.