H. Koivisto

Metal ion beams from an ECR ion source using volatile compounds

Abstract A new MIVOC method (Metal Ions from Volatile Compounds) at an ECR ion source gives a means to produce highly charged metal ion beams at room temperature conditions. Chemical compounds containing metallic atoms are utilized. The compound has to fulfill the two basic requirements: Vapour pressure of the compound is relatively high at room temperature. Evaporation and diffusion of the compound into the source take place without dissociation of the molecule. Up to present metal ion beams from iron and nickel compounds have been produced. The maximum currents of 56Fe9+ and 58Ni10+ from natural elements were 23.9 μA and 18.7 μA, respectively. First measurements have demonstrated the ability of the method to produce stable and high intensity, highly charged metal ion beams. The MIVOC is also believed to be competitive by virtue of its simplicity and low cost of construction.

The first results with the new JYFL 14 GHz ECR ion source

Abstract A new 14 GHz ECR ion source has been built for the Accelerator Laboratory in the Department of Physics (JYFL), University of Jyvaskyla. This source belongs to the family of the LBNL AECR-U-based ECR ion sources. The operation during the first four months has shown that the new ion source performs well and is able to produce intensive highly charged ion beams. For example, 145 μA of O7+ ion beam was recorded. The production of iron and boron ion beams was tested using the MIVOC method. The 56Fe11+ ion beam current reached a value of 115 μA. The intensities of 11B3+ and 11B5+ ion beams were 235 and 52 μA, respectively. This iron beam intensity is the second highest and the boron beam intensities are the highest ever produced by an ECR ion source. In all the tests an extraction voltage of 10 kV was applied.

Beam current oscillations driven by cyclotron instabilities in a minimum-Belectron cyclotron resonance ion source plasma

Experimental observation of cyclotron instabilities in a minimum-B confined electron cyclotron resonance ion source plasma is reported. The instabilities are associated with strong microwave emission and a burst of energetic electrons escaping the plasma, and explain the periodic ms-scale oscillation of the extracted beam currents. Such non-linear effects are detrimental for the confinement of highly charged ions due to plasma perturbations at shorter periodic intervals in comparison with their production time. It is shown that the repetition rate of the periodic instabilities in oxygen plasmas increases with increasing magnetic field strength and microwave power and decreases with increasing neutral gas pressure, the magnetic field strength being the most critical parameter. The occurrence of plasma turbulence is demonstrated to restrict the parameter space available for the optimization of extracted currents of highly charged ions.

A new plasma potential measurement instrument for plasma ion sources

A very efficient and fast instrument to measure the plasma potential of ion sources has been developed at the Department of Physics, University of Jyvaskyla (JYFL). The operating principle of this novel instrument is to apply a decelerating voltage into a mesh located in the beamline of the ion source. The plasma potential is determined by measuring the current at the grounded electrode situated behind the mesh as a function of the voltage. In this article, we will introduce the instrument and the first results. In the experiments, the instrument was connected to the beamline of the JYFL 6.4 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source. The plasma potential was measured with different source conditions and it was observed to vary between 30–65 V. The plasma potential tended to increase as the microwave power, or the gas feed rate, was increased. These results are consistent with earlier observations and estimations. It was also noticed that the value of the plasma potential changed when the negative voltag...

Metal ions from the volatile compounds method for the production of metal ion beams

The metal ions from the volatile compounds (MIVOC) method was developed at the Accelerator Laboratory, University of Jyvaskyla, in order to produce metal ion beams with the source material at or near room temperature conditions. It has been used with the JYFL-ECR ion source since 1993 and has turned out to be both simple and reliable. The method was adopted at several laboratories. Up to the present time, at least 17 MIVOC beams were produced (C, Mg, Si, Cl, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Ge, Mo, Ru, Sn, I, W, and Os). With the MIVOC technique it was found possible to operate the JYFL-ECR ion source with compounds of metals, either powders or liquids, that have a room temperature vapor pressure of the order of 1E–3 mbar or higher. The MIVOC method has turned out to be very economical in use since a typical material consumption rate is about 0.3 mg/h. This corresponds to the consumption rate of gases. Due to the simplicity of the system the duty-off time of the ion source is minimized. In this article, the basis o...

Measurement of the high energy component of the x-ray spectra in the VENUS electron cyclotron resonance ion source

High performance electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources, such as VENUS (Versatile ECR for NUclear Science), produce large amounts of x-rays. By studying their energy spectra, conclusions can be drawn about the electron heating process and the electron confinement. In addition, the bremsstrahlung from the plasma chamber is partly absorbed by the cold mass of the superconducting magnet, adding an extra heat load to the cryostat. Germanium or NaI detectors are generally used for x-ray measurements. Due to the high x-ray flux from the source, the experimental setup to measure bremsstrahlung spectra from ECR ion sources is somewhat different from that for the traditional nuclear physics measurements these detectors are generally used for. In particular, the collimation and background shielding can be problematic. In this paper, we will discuss the experimental setup for such a measurement, the energy calibration and background reduction, the shielding of the detector, and collimation of the x-ray flux. We will present x-ray energy spectra and cryostat heating rates depending on various ion source parameters, such as confinement fields, minimum B-field, rf power, and heating frequency.

High current proton source based on ECR discharge sustained by 37.5 GHz gyrotron radiation

Formation of hydrogen ion beams with high intensity and low transverse emittance is one of the key challenges in accelerator technology. Present work is devoted to experimental investigation of proton beam production from dense plasma (Ne > 1013 cm−3) of an ECR discharge sustained by 37.5 GHz, 100 kW gyrotron radiation at SMIS 37 facility at IAP RAS. The anticipated advantages of the SMIS 37 gasdynamic ion source over the current state-of-the-art proton source technology based on 2.45 GHz hydrogen discharges are described. Experimental result obtained with different extraction configurations i.e. single- and multi-aperture systems are presented. It was demonstrated that ultra bright proton beam with approximately 4.5 mA current and 0.03 πmmmrad normalized emittance can be produced with the single-aperture (1 mm in diameter) extraction, the corresponding brightness being 5 A/(πmmmrad)2. For production of high current beams a multi-aperture extractor was used resulting to a record of 200 mA / 1.1 πmmmrad normalized emittance proton beam. The species fraction i.e. the ratio of H+ to H2+ current was recorded to be > 90 % for all extraction systems. A possibility of further enhancement of the beam parameters by improvements of the extraction system and its power supply is discussed.

Effect of electron cyclotron resonance ion source frequency tuning on ion beam intensity and quality at Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä

Ion beam intensity and quality have a crucial effect on the operation efficiency of the accelerator facilities. This paper presents the investigations on the ion beam intensity and quality after the mass separation performed with the Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä 14 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source by sweeping the microwave in the 14.05-14.13 GHz range. In many cases a clear variation in the ion beam intensity and quality as a function of the frequency was observed. The effect of frequency tuning increased with the charge state. In addition, clear changes in the beam structure seen with the beam viewer were observed. The results confirmed that frequency tuning can have a remarkable effect on ion beam intensity and quality especially in the case of highly charged ion beams. The examples presented here represent the typical charge state behavior observed during the measurements.

Plasma breakdown diagnostics with the biased disc of electron cyclotron resonance ion source

The electron cyclotron resonance ion sources at the JYFL (University of Jyvaskyla, Department of Physics) accelerator laboratory have been operated in pulsed mode to study the time-resolved current signal from the biased discs of the ion sources. The purpose of the experiments is to gain an understanding of the ion source parameters affecting the time required for the transition from neutral gas to plasma. It was observed that the plasma breakdown time depends strongly on the neutral gas density, gas species and density of seed electrons. In particular, it was observed that a low power microwave signal at secondary frequency makes the breakdown time virtually independent of the neutral gas density. The results can be utilized for operation of ECR ion sources in the so-called preglow mode. A simple qualitative model, which is in good agreement with the experiments, has been developed to interpret the results.

Multipurpose superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source, the European roadmap to third-generation electron cyclotron resonance ion sources

The major infrastructures of nuclear physics in Europe adopted the technology of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources for the production of heavy-ion beams. Most of them use 14GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRISs), except at INFN-LNS, where an 18GHz superconducting ECRIS is in operation. In the past five years it was demonstrated, in the frame of the EU-FP5 RTD project called “Innovative ECRIS,” that further enhancement of the performances requires a higher frequency (28GHz and above) and a higher magnetic field (above 2.2T) for the hexapolar field. Within the EU-FP6 a joint research activity named ISIBHI has been established to build by 2008 two different ion sources, the A-PHOENIX source at LPSC Grenoble, reported in another contribution, and the multipurpose superconducting ECRIS (MS-ECRIS), based on fully superconducting magnets, able to operate in High B mode at a frequency of 28GHz or higher. Such a development represents a significant step compared to existing devices, and...