Design of a matching circuit for a high-intensity negative hydrogen ion source driving with 324 MHz RF power source

Shinto, Katsuhiro   ; Shibata, Takanori*; Wada, Motoi*

Negative hydrogen (H) ion sources which are used at high-intensity proton accelerator facilities such as J-PARC or neutral beam injection system for plasma heating in the fusion devices such as ITER produce plasmas by using RF sources driving with the frequency of 1-2 MHz. We have shown that the H beams extracted from the RF-driven H ion source with the frequency of several MHz have some fluctuations with the frequency of the fundamental and second harmonics. The reason is that the high plasma density is produced in the ion source with the low driving frequency. Therefore, we propose the driving RF frequency same as the RF sources with that of 324 MHz in the J-PARC linac, which is much higher than the ion plasma frequency, is used for producing the plasma to suppress the H beam fluctuations. As a first step, we performed a design of a matching circuit for the higher frequency driven H ion source. We present the background for decision of a new RF amplifier with much higher frequency and the design results.