A novel method to survey parameters of an ion beam and its interaction with a target

Beam profile and composition of the pulsed ion beam from a vacuum arc source are valuable information for designing a high-intensity deuterium-tritium neutron generator. Traditional methods are notoriously difficult to obtain the information at the same time. A novel off-line diagnostic method is presented, which can obtain the transverse beam profile with high resolution as well as species of the ions in the beam. The method is using a silicon target with high purity to interact with the ion beam, and then use secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) to analyze the interaction zone of the target to get the beam information. More information on beam-target interaction could get simultaneously. Proof-of-principle simulation and experimental works have demonstrated this method is practical.