Radiation from the highly-charged ions contained in the plasma of Electron-Cyclotron Resonance Ion Sources constitutes a very bright source of X-rays. Because the ions have a relatively low kinetic energy ($approx 1$ eV) transitions can be very narrow, containing only small Doppler broadening. We describe preliminary accurate measurements of two and three-electron ions with Z=16--18. We show how these measurement can test sensitively many-body relativistic calculations or can be used as X-ray standards for precise measurements of X-ray transitions in exotic atoms.
The three-dimensional NAM-ECRIS model is applied for studying the metal ion production in the DECRIS-PM Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source. Experimentally measured extracted ion currents are accurately reproduced with the model. Parameters of the injection of metal vapors into the source are optimized. It is found that the axial injection of the highly directional fluxes allows increasing the extracted ion currents of the highly charged calcium ions by factor of 1.5. The reason for the gain in the currents is formation of internal barrier for the ions inside the plasma, which increase the ion extraction and production efficiency. Benefits of injecting the singly-charged calcium ions instead of atoms are discussed.
Electron dynamics in Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source is numerically simulated by using Particle-In-Cell code combined with simulations of the ion dynamics. Mean electron energies are found to be around 70 keV close to values that are derived from spectra of X-ray emission out of the source. Electron life time is defined by losses of low-energy electrons created in ionizing collisions; the losses are regulated by electron heating rate, which depends on magnitude of the microwave electric field. Changes in ion confinement with variations in the microwave electric field and gas flow are simulated. Influence of electron dynamics on the afterglow and two-frequency heating effects is discussed.
Ion extraction from DECRIS-PM source is simulated by using initial distributions of ions at the extraction aperture obtained with NAM-ECRIS code. Three-dimensional calculations of plasma emissive surface are done and ions are traced in the extraction region. The ion beam profiles show strong aberrations due to shape of plasma meniscus; hollow beam features are reproduced, as well as changes in profiles for different focusing conditions.
The particle-in-cell MCC code NAM-ECRIS is used to simulate the ECRIS plasma sustained in a mixture of Kr with O2, N2, Ar, Ne and He. The model assumes that ions are electrostatically confined in ECR zone by a dip in the plasma potential. Gain in the extracted krypton ion currents is seen for the highest charge states; the gain is maximized when oxygen is used as the mixing gas. A special feature of oxygen is that most of singly charged oxygen ions are produced after dissociative ionization of oxygen molecules with the large kinetic energy release of around 5 eV per ion. Increased loss rate of energetic lowly charged ions of the mixing element requires building up of the retarding potential barrier close to ECR surface to equilibrate electron and ion losses out of the plasma. In the mixed plasmas, the barrier value is large (~1 V) compared to the pure Kr plasma (~0.01 V), with the longer confinement times of krypton ions and with the much higher ion temperatures.
Important features of Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source (ECRIS) operation are accurately reproduced with a numerical code. The code uses the particle-in-cell technique to model a dynamics of ions in ECRIS plasma. It is shown that gas dynamical ion confinement mechanism is sufficient to provide the ion production rates in ECRIS close to the experimentally observed values. Extracted ion currents are calculated and compared to the experiment for few sources. Changes in the extracted ion currents are obtained with varying the gas flow into the source chamber and the microwave power. Empirical scaling laws for ECRIS design are studied and the underlying physical effects are discussed.