Effect of the magnetic field on the energy of deuterium ions accelerated in the collision of magnetosonic shock waves

A study is made of the effect of the initial magnetic field magnitude on the energy of deuterium ions accelerated in the collision of two magnetosonic shock waves propagating in a deuterium plasma quasi-perpendicularly to the magnetic field. Experiments were carried out at a constant plasma density of ≃2.5 × 10¹³ cm^-3. It is found that, as the external magnetic field decreases from 1.4 to 0.7 T and, accordingly, the magnetic Mach number increases from 1.02 to 2.3, the energy of accelerated ions increases from 3.2 to 7.5 MeV. The maximum number of accelerated ions attains 10⁵-10⁶ particles per shot.