Control of negative ion beam uniformity by using multipower supplies for arc discharge

Multipower supplies for the arc discharge are installed to improve beam uniformity of a large size of the neutral beam injection system in the large helical device (LHD). The plasma tends to shift on the upper side of the arc chamber when the same arc voltage is applied to all filaments. The arc discharge current distribution becomes uniform as a consequence-of the individual voltage control, but about 20 V difference of the arc voltage between the top and bottom circuits is required. We have estimated the beam profile from each acceleration grid by comparing the calculation and measurement of the beam profile of Halpha and calorimeter. The uniformity of arc discharge has been improved in most regions without the discharge adjustment by a horizontal filament connection. The controllability of the arc discharge distribution of the horizontal filament connection is better than that of the vertical filament connection. The efficiency of the beam production is improved by about 10% in the case of the horizontal filament connection. As a result 3.7 MW of the beam injection has been achieved in the LHD 6th experimental campaign in 2003. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.