Ion beam profile diagnostic methods for vacuum arc ion source in sealed-tube neutron generator

The pulsed ion beam from a vacuum arc source in a compact sealed-tube neutron generator owns many special features, such as multiparticle mixture beams, high-intensity beams, short pulsewidth beams, transporting in a single gap acceleration system, and eccentric beams. Beam profile and composition are useful information for designing a high-intensity sealed-tube neutron generator, especially for the insulation withstand of the device, the life of the tritium target, the neutron yield, and so on. An improved traditional online diagnostic method that uses an aluminum-coated scintillator screen and a novel offline diagnostic method that is based on secondary ion mass spectrometry are introduced, respectively. The preliminary experimental results can show the intensity distribution of the ion beam profile and the composition with high resolution. The results from the two methods can fit each other well.