Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II (NDCX-II) will generate ion beam pulses for studies of Warm Dense Matter and heavy-ion-driven Inertial Fusion Energy. The machine will accelerate 20-50 nC of Li+ to 1.2-3 MeV energy, starting from a 10.9-cm alumino-silicate ion source. At the end of the accelerator the ions are focused to a sub-mm spot size onto a thin foil (planar) target. The pulse duration is compressed from ~;;500 ns at the source to sub-ns at the target following beam transport in a neutralizing plasma. We first describe the injector, accelerator, transport, final focus and diagnostic facilities. We then report on the results of early commissioning studies that characterize beam quality and beam transport, acceleration waveform shaping and beam current evolution. We present simulation results to benchmark against the experimental measurements.