Improved ion extraction from an electron cyclotron resonance ion source by a metal-dielectric-extraction electrode

The goal of the experiment was to study the influence and the physics of the boundary region (between the plasma and the extraction potential) with direct impact on the source ion-beam output. A specially processed high-emissive metal-dielectric structure was installed on the extraction electrode of the Frankfurt 14 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS), forming a so-called metal-dielectric- (MD) extraction electrode. The emissive layer of the disk faced the plasma; its inner hole was about the size of the normal extraction hole of the ECRIS. The output of the ECRIS in the presence of the MD electrode was compared with the outputs for the standard configuration (overall stainless-steel plasma chamber) and with the same plasma chamber with the radial wall covered by a highly electron emissive MD liner that raise the plasma electron density and temperature. The charge state distributions of the argon ions extracted from the source show an important increase of the ion beam for the high charge states as compared to the standard situation whereas the low charge states are less reduced than in the case of the presence of a MD liner. Due to the special position of the dielectric layer, the MD electrode introduces a new effect, which is connected to its property of becoming a positively charged surface under electron and ion bombardment. The MD electrode creates a quasiconfinement of the peripheral ions in the extraction, those ions that are normally lost to a conducting extraction electrode. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.