Improvement of a large negative ion source for the Large Helical Device neutral beam injector

For compensation of the magnetically deflected beamlets, a new type of grid system has been applied to a large negative ion source of a negative-ion-based neutral beam injector in the Large Helical Device (LHD) fusion experimental machine. Corresponding to deviation of the negative ion beamlet trajectory due to the electron suppression magnetic field at the extraction grid, the exit aperture of the extraction grid is displaced to cancel the beamlet deflection by electrostatic lens effect. As a result, the beamlet deflection was suppressed less than 2 mrad in a wide range of energy of 110-180 keV, and the port-through efficiency of the injected beam was improved to 90%-95% from 70%-75% in the case of the previous compensation by the grounded grid aperture displacement. The injected beam power was increased to 3.5 MW with an energy of 165 keV using one injector. To improve beam uniformity of the large area beam, individual arc currents through filaments are controlled for uniform plasma production, with independent 12 arc power supplies connected to 12 filament power supplies. The initial results show good controllability of the individual arc current distribution at a high arc power. The improvement of the ion source performance would lead to an increase in the injection power in the following LHD experimental campaign. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.