A Helicon Ion Source for the SNS Power Upgrade

The SNS Power Upgrade will require an ion source capable of producing negative hydrogen ion (H--) beams of 70-95 mA, depending on source emittance, with a duty factor of 7.4{\%}. Presently no sources in operation at existing accelerator facilities can simultaneously meet these requirements of beam current, emittance, duty factor with a reasonable lifetime. The possibility of meeting these requirements by combining a helicon hydrogen plasma generator previously developed in the Fusion Energy Division (FED) at ORNL with the existing SNS-LBNL H-- ion source will be discussed. Both these systems have been highly optimized and reflect the current state-of-the-art in high-density hydrogen plasma production and high-brightness H-- generation. The helicon plasma generator has demonstrated the capability of producing hydrogen plasma densities up to an order of magnitude greater than in the current SNS-LBNL source.