Jani Komppula

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.

Limitations of electron cyclotron resonance ion source performances set by kinetic plasma instabilities

Electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) plasmas are prone to kinetic instabilities due to anisotropy of the electron energy distribution function stemming from the resonant nature of the electron heating process. Electron cyclotron plasma instabilities are related to non-linear interaction between plasma waves and energetic electrons resulting to strong microwave emission and a burst of energetic electrons escaping the plasma, and explain the periodic oscillations of the extracted beam currents observed in several laboratories. It is demonstrated with a minimum-B 14 GHz ECRIS operating on helium, oxygen, and argon plasmas that kinetic instabilities restrict the parameter space available for the optimization of high charge state ion currents. The most critical parameter in terms of plasma stability is the strength of the solenoid magnetic field. It is demonstrated that due to the instabilities the optimum Bmin-field in single frequency heating mode is often ≤0.8BECR, which is the value suggested by the semiempirical scaling laws guiding the design of modern ECRISs. It is argued that the effect can be attributed not only to the absolute magnitude of the magnetic field but also to the variation of the average magnetic field gradient on the resonance surface.

Plasma instability in the afterglow of electron cyclotron resonance discharge sustained in a mirror trap

The work presented in this article is devoted to time-resolved diagnostics of non-linear effects observed during the afterglow plasma decay of a 14 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source operated in pulsed mode. Plasma instabilities that cause perturbations of the extracted ion current during the decay were observed and studied. It is shown that these perturbations are associated with precipitation of high energy electrons along the magnetic field lines and strong bursts of bremsstrahlung emission. The effect of ion source settings on the onset of the observed instabilities was investigated. Based on the experimental data and estimated plasma properties, it is assumed that the instabilities are of cyclotron type. The conclusion is supported by a comparison to other types of plasma devices which exhibit similar characteristics but which operate in a different plasma confinement regime.

VUV irradiance measurement of a 2.45 GHz microwave-driven hydrogen discharge

Absolute values of VUV-emission of a 2.45 GHz microwave-driven hydrogen discharge are reported. The measurements were performed with a robust and straightforward method based on a photodiode and optical filters. It was found that the volumetric photon emission rate in the VUV-range (80-250 nm) is

Suppression of cyclotron instability in Electron Cyclotron Resonance ion sources by two-frequency heating

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Ultra-fast intensified frame images from an electron cyclotron resonance hydrogen plasma at 2.45 GHz: some space distributions of visible and monochromatic emissions.

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Experimental study of hydrogen plasma breakdown in a 2.45 GHz microwave discharge

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Limitation of the ECRIS performance by kinetic plasma instabilities (invited).

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Photoelectron emission from metal surfaces induced by VUV-emission of filament driven hydrogen arc discharge plasma

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Effect of Ion Escape Velocity and Conversion Surface Material on H− Production

s, which corresponds to approximately 8% dissipation of injected microwave power by VUV photon emission. The volumetric emission of characteristic emission bands was utilized to diagnostics of molecular plasma processes including volumetric rates of ionization, dissociation and excitation to high vibrational levels and metastable states. The estimated reaction rates imply that each injected molecule experiences several inelastic electron impact collisions. The upper limit for the total density of metastable neutrals (