New progress of high current gasdynamic ion source (invited).

Recent development of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources in China is reviewed. Emphasis is put on high charge state ECR ion sources which have been mainly developed in China by Institute of Modern Physics (IMP). Presently two ECR ion sources built by IMP for highly charged ion beams are put into operation for cyclotrons and atomic physics research. The development of high charge state ECR ion sources at IMP has progressed with a new magnetic field configuration, better condition for extraction of highly charged ions, high mirror magnetic field, large plasma volume, and special techniques to provide extra cold electrons. These techniques greatly enhance the production of highly charged ions from IMP ECR ion sources. So far more than 185 eμA of Ar11+ and 50 eμA of Xe26+ were produced by the IMP ECR ion sources. The metallic ion beam production was tested and the first beam Ca11+40 was provided to the cyclotrons at IMP. The beam intensity of Ca11+40 could reach 130 eμA. The next part of this article will report the latest progress of 2.45 GHz ECR ion sources in China. A 2.45 GHz compact permanent magnet proton ion source was designed and constructed by IMP. A new microwave feeding system is applied on this ion source. The ion source is able to deliver 90 mA of mixed ion beam (H1++H2++H3+) after preliminary commissioning. The article also mentions a small 2.45 GHz ECR ion source which was built by Sichuan University and used for industry applications. The dependence of plasma density and electron temperature on radio frequency power, neutral gas pressure, and different microwave windows was measured by a Langmuir probe on this ion source.

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 an increase of typically a factor of 10 for the intensity is expected (e.g., 1emA for medium charge states of heavy ions, or hundreds of eμA of fully stripped light ions, or even 1eμA of charge states above 50+ for the heaviest species). The challenging issue is the very high level of magnetic field, never achieved by a minimum B trap magnet system; the maximum magnetic field of MS-ECRIS will be higher than 4 or 5T for the axial field and close to 2.7T for the hexapolar field. The detailed description of the MS-ECRIS project and of its major constraints will be given along with the general issues of the developments under way.

Electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources were first proposed by R. Geller in 1965 and H. Postma using their experience with mirror machines for fusion plasma studies. ECR ion sources for the generation of multiply charged ions need the highest possible plasma confinement to reach a high value of the product of electron density and confinement time, net, necessary for step-by-step ionization of the ions. This ECR ion source, called MAFIOS, delivered just moderate charge states as from a penning ionization gauge ion source because ion lifetime in the plasma was short. In 1975 Geller reported on a new ECR ion source design using a two-stage arrangement called SuperMAFIOS. In the presence of a sufficiently high magnetic field, electron cyclotron resonance heating of the electrons will occur. The higher magnetic field improves the confinement of the ions and in this way improves the charge state distribution.

Superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source with advance design in Lanzhou (SECRAL) is an 18-28 GHz fully superconducting electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source dedicated for highly charged heavy ion beam production. SECRAL, with an innovative superconducting magnet structure of solenoid-inside-sextupole and at lower frequency and lower rf power operation, may open a new way for developing compact and reliable high performance superconducting ECR ion source. One of the recent highlights achieved at SECRAL is that some new record beam currents for very high charge states were produced by 18 GHz or 18+14.5 GHz double frequency heating, such as 1 e microA of (129)Xe(43+), 22 e microA of (209)Bi(41+), and 1.5 e microA of (209)Bi(50+). To further enhance the performance of SECRAL, a 24 GHz/7 kW gyrotron microwave generator was installed and SECRAL was tested at 24 GHz. Some promising and exciting results at 24 GHz with new record highly charged ion beam intensities were produced, such as 455 e microA of (129)Xe(27+) and 152 e microA of (129)Xe(30+), although the commissioning time was limited within 3-4 weeks and rf power only 3-4 kW. Bremsstrahlung measurements at 24 GHz show that x-ray is much stronger with higher rf frequency, higher rf power. and higher minimum mirror magnetic field (minimum B). Preliminary emittance measurements indicate that SECRAL emittance at 24 GHz is slightly higher that at 18 GHz. SECRAL has been put into routine operation at 18 GHz for heavy ion research facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL) accelerator complex since May 2007. The total operation beam time from SECRAL for HIRFL accelerator has been more than 2000 h, and (129)Xe(27+), (78)Kr(19+), (209)Bi(31+), and (58)Ni(19+) beams were delivered. All of these new developments, the latest results, and long-term operation for the accelerator have again demonstrated that SECRAL is one of the best in the performance of ECR ion source for highly charged heavy ion beam production. Finally the future development of SECRAL will be presented.

Advances in metal ion sources

To reveal the argon plasma characteristics within the entire region of an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source, the plasma parameters were diagnosed using a bended Langmuir probe with the filament axis perpendicular to the diagnosing plane. Experiments indicate that, with a gas volume flow rate and incident microwave power of 4 sccm and 8.8 W, respectively, the gas was ionized to form plasma with a luminous ring. When the incident microwave power was above 27 W, the luminous ring was converted to a bright column, the dark area near its axis was narrowed, and the microwave power absorbing efficiency was increased. This indicates that there was a mode transition phenomenon in this ECR ion source when the microwave power increased. The diagnosis shows that, at an incident microwave power of 17.4 W, the diagnosed electron temperature and ion density were below 8 eV and 3 × 1017 m−3, respectively, while at incident microwave power levels of 30 W and 40 W, the maximum electron temperature and ion density were above 11 eV and 6.8 × 1017 m−3, respectively. Confined by magnetic mirrors, the higher density plasma region had a bow shape, which coincided with the magnetic field lines but deviated from the ECR layer.

The versatility of ECR (Electron Cyclotron Resonance) ion sources makes them the injector of choice for many heavy ion accelerators. However, the design of the LEBT (Low Energy Beam Transport) systems for these devices is challenging, because it has to be matched for a wide variety of ions. In addition, due to the magnetic confinement fields, the ion density distribution across the extraction aperture is inhomogeneous and charge state dependent. In addition, the ion beam is extracted from a region of high axial magnetic field, which adds a rotational component to the beam. In this paper the development of a simulation model (in particular the initial conditions at the extraction aperture) for ECR ion source beams is described. Extraction from the plasma and transport through the beam line are then simulated with the particle-in-cell code WARP. Simulations of the multispecies beam containing Uranium ions of charge state 18+ to 42+ and oxygen ions extracted from the VENUS ECR ion source are presented and compared to experimentally obtained emittance values.

A tandem-type electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source (ECRIS) has been constructed for synthesizing, extracting, and analyzing ions. The feasibility and realization of the device which has rangy operation window in a single device are investigated to produce many kinds of ion beams like universal source based on ECRIS. The ECR plasmas are considered to be necessary to be available to coexist and to be operated individually with different plasma parameters. Both of analysis of ion beams and investigation of plasma parameters will be conducted on produced plasmas. In this article the experimental study concentrates on improvement of producing and extracting multicharged ion beams from the second stage of the tandem-type ECRIS under lower magnetic mirror field with octupole magnets. The assembly of the extractor is modified and their positions, gap, and potentials are investigated against each ion spices. We succeeded in producing, extracting multicharged ion currents and improving ion extraction, while the magnetic field is about 60% of the previous magnetic field strength. We will present obtained evidences experimentally in detail.

At the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud we have designed a hybrid ion source, consisting of a laser ion source as first stage, which gives intense currents of electrons and of multiply charged ions, followed by an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source as a second stage, which should act as a charge state multiplier. The ECR ion source coupled to a laser ion source for charge state enhancement (ECLISSE) experiment has been funded by INFN and preliminary experiments have been carried out at IPPLM in Warsaw, in order to confirm the beneficial effects of the axial magnetic field of the ECR ion source on the extraction of the ions from the LIS, as foreseen by calculations. The description of the ECLISSE experiment and of the results of the preliminary tests will be reported.

Now there are numerous sources for multicharged ions production, each being designed for certain science or technological objectives. Electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRIS) are best suited for designing heavy ion accelerators of very high energies, because they can generate multicharged ion beams at relatively great intensities. In these sources, plasma heating and its confinement are effected predominantly in minimum-B magnetic traps, this type of magnetic trap consist of two current coils used for the longitudinal magnetic confinement and a hexapole system around the cavity to generate a transversal confinement of the plasma. In an ECRIS, the electron cyclotron frequency and the microwave frequency are maintained equal on a quasi-ellipsoidal surface localized in the trap volume. It is crucial to heat electrons to energies sufficient to ionize K- and L-levels of heavy atoms. In this work, we present the preliminary numerical results concerning the space distribution of TE111 microwave field in a cylindrical cavity. The 3D microwave field is calculated by solving the Maxwell equations through the Yee’s method. The magnetic field of minimum-B configuration is determined using the Biot-Savart law. The parameters of the magnetic system are that which guarantee the ECR surface location in a zone of a reasonably high microwave tension. Additionally, the accuracy of electric and magnetic fields calculations are checked.

Research in nuclear physics with heavy ions continues to drive the development of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources to both higher charge states and greater intensities. Already, the beam intensities from ECR ion sources have reached the 1 emA level for beams such as O6+ and Ar8+. However, the production of mA level beams from heavier, higher charge state beams presents significant challenges. The first challenge is to generate and confine a sufficiently dense plasma with a very low neutral density and high electron temperature to produce the needed ions. Fortunately, the density of the high charge state ECR plasmas scales roughly with the square of the microwave frequency, provided the magnetic field is scaled linearly with frequency and Bconfinement∼2Becr is maintained. At 28 GHz, the optimum confining fields are about 2 T, which can only be produced with superconducting magnets. The second challenge is to produce high intensity beams from solid feeds and this requires specialized ovens located close to the hot electron plasma. The third challenge is to efficiently extract and transport the intense beams without degrading the emittance. Traditionally, ECR sources have operated in the 10–20 kV range but at these voltages the space charge forces cause beam losses when the total extracted currents are many mA. The two main approaches are to operate at higher extraction voltage and to separate the desired charge state from the others extracted as early in the beam transport as possible. In this article we will review the current performance of high-field, high-frequency ECR ion sources such as RIKEN-18 GHz ECR, SERSE, and Phoenix, describe other ion sources now under construction such as the superconducting source VENUS at Berkeley, and discuss progress on the beam transport issues.

Electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources are scientific instruments particularly useful for physics: they are extensively used in atomic, nuclear, and high energy physics, for the production of multicharged beams. Moreover, these sources are also of fundamental interest for plasma physics, because of the very particular properties of the ECR plasma. This article describes the state of the art on the physics of the ECR plasma related to multiply charged ion sources. In Sec. I, we describe the general aspects of ECR ion sources. Physics related to the electrons is presented in Sec. II: we discuss there the problems of heating and confinement. In Sec. III, the problem of ion production and confinement is presented. A numerical code is presented, and some particular and important effects, specific to ECR ion sources, are shown in Sec. IV. Eventually, in Sec. V, technological aspects of ECR are presented and different types of sources are shown.

VENUS is a third generation electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source, which incorporates a high field superconducting NbTi magnet structure, a 28 GHz gryotron microwave source and a state of the art closed cycle cryosystem. During the decade from initial concept to regular operation, it has demonstrated both the feasibility and the performance levels of this new generation of ECR ion sources and required innovation on magnet construction, plasma chamber design, and beam transport. In this paper, the development, performance, and major innovations are described as well as a look to the potential to construct a fourth generation ECR ion source.

An intense accelerator-based D-D/D-T neutron generator, with neutron yields of 6 × 1010 n/s due to the D-D reaction and 6 × 1012 n/s due to the D-T reaction, is being developed at Lanzhou University in China. The 2.45 GHz electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source and the pre-analysis system, as the front injector for the accelerator tube of the neutron generator, are designed to provide a 35 mA deuterium beam for neutron production and a 50 mA proton beam for commissioning. The pre-analysis system consists of a solenoid, a steering magnet, a vacuum chamber, a dipole magnet, three quadrupole magnets, a beam dump, and a Faraday cup. The ion source and pre-analysis system were completed a trial operation, and the intensity of the proton beam measured at the end of the pre-analysis system was higher than 50 mA when the hydrogen ion beam current extracted from the ECR ion source was greater than 70 mA.

The Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source is an irreplaceable apparatus for producing high-intensity, highly charged heavy ion beams, representing a critical component for heavy ion accelerators. The operation of the ECR ion source is inherently influenced by various factors, leading to fluctuations in beam intensity. Such instability not only diminishes the efficacy of accelerator operations but also introduces distortions in terminal experimental data. Addressing these challenges, this study proposes the application of a Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) based on a Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) loss function (TCN-DTW) for predicting the stability of the ion beams. Prior to constructing the prediction network, raw data undergoes preprocessing through an Interquartile Range (IQR) anomaly detection mechanism and the Savitzky-Golay (SG) filtering algorithm with an adaptive window. Experimental results demonstrate a substantial enhancement in prediction performance when employing the TCN network with the DTW loss function compared to traditional alternatives. This approach facilitates effective forecasting of the ion source beam current trend, offering a basis for the control and correction of long-term stability. Consequently, it provides valuable insights for optimizing the ECR ion source and enhancing overall accelerator operational performance.