Variable Density, Uniform Hydrogen Plasma Source For Plasma-Based Accelerators

Plasma-based particle accelerators require practical plasma sources with sufficient control of plasma properties to enable implementation 1 . This report presents an update of a simple hydrogen plasma source that has been under investigation at USC2. Uniform plasma densities in hydrogen of over $10 ^{18}$ cm-3 have been demonstrated. The presentation will update studies of the uniformity of the plasma, which will be a key issue in implementation. The density can be varied in several ways that are fairly straightforward to implement in a table-top device including pressure, time delay of pulse, and driving pulsed power voltage and current. These are small devices driven by low energy pulsed sources.