Production of C58 and C56 Ions by Using Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source

An electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) has been developed for a synthesis of endohedral metallofullerenes. The ECRIS has a traditional minimum-B magnetic field and an 8-10 GHz traveling wave tube (TWT) amplifier as a microwave source. C60 plasmas have been generated at the first experiment. Many broken fullerenes C58 and C56 are observed in fullerene ion beams. We investigated the fullerene ion beams against pressures in the ion source. From the results, these fullerene ion currents increase as the decrease of the pressure and the maximum current is 0.81 μA of C602+.