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This study reports the results of kinetic plasma simulations of the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Plasma Accelerator (ECRIPAC). ECRIPAC* is an original compact plasma accelerator capable of producing high-energy pulsed ion beams by leveraging established and reliable ECR ion source technologies, without the need for axial radiofrequency cavities or high-power laser systems. The concept is based on the gyromagnetic autoresonance of plasma electrons in a time-varying magnetic field, followed by the axial acceleration of ions by the plasma space-charge electric field within a magnetic field gradient, resulting in ion energies approaching 100 MeV per nucleon.
After a brief overview of the ECRIPAC operating principles**, three-dimensional electromagnetic Particle-In-Cell simulations performed with the open-source code WarpX*** are presented for a preliminary He2+ accelerator design****. The simulations provide a detailed characterization of the plasma dynamics throughout the different stages of the ECRIPAC operating cycle, including electron heating, charge separation, plasma compression and ion acceleration. Particular attention is devoted to the evolution of key plasma parameters and to the identification of kinetic instabilities that affect the plasma bunch evolution and limit the accelerator performance. These results provide insight into the underlying acceleration mechanisms and establish a basis for the optimization of future ECRIPAC designs.
Footnotes
R. Geller et al., Proc. of the 10th international workshop on ECR ion sources (Knoxville, USA, 1991) pp. 449–451.
A. Cernuschi et al., Physical Review E 113 pp. 045211 (2026). DOI: 10.1103/5hk4-3md2
J.-L. Vay et al., WarpX: An advanced Particle-In-Cell code. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.4571577, https://blast-warpx.github.io (2018)
**A. Cernuschi et al., Physical Review E 113 pp. L043202 (2026). DOI: 10.1103/xfhl-nxgx
| Classification | MC2: New concepts and next generation sources |
|---|---|
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