Experimental Study of the Anode Geometry and Insulator Material-Length Effect on Ion Beam Intensity in a Mather Type Plasma Focus Device

In this paper, the effect of the anode electrode geometry with different insulator sleeve lengths and materials on the ion beam emitted from a 3 kJ plasma focus device is studied. Two Pyrex and Quartz insulators with different lengths and two anode tip geometries, i.e. cylindrical and conic, are used. Ion beam intensity in 12 kV charging voltage and conic anode with the 50 mm Pyrex insulator was increased by a factor of 1.11. Optimum length of the Pyrex insulator related to the maximum ion beam intensity varied with the anode geometry and increased from 45 mm to 50 mm, when we replaced the cylindrical anode with the conic one in 12 kV applied voltage. Under the same working condition, the conic anode tip tended to have more ion beam intensity in comparison with the conventional cylindrical flat geometry.