Ge and Ti post-ion acceleration from laser ion source

Laser ion sources (LIS) are employed with success to generate, in vacuum, Ge and Ti ion beams with high current, ion energy, charge states and directivity.Nanoseconds infrared laser pulses, with intensities of the order of 10¹⁰ W/cm², induce high ablation in Ge and Ti targets. Ions are produced in vacuum with energy distribution following the Coulomb–Boltzmann-shifted distribution and they are ejected mainly along the normal to the target surface. The free ion expansion process occurs in a constant-potential chamber placed at 30 kV positive voltage. An electric field of 5 kV/cm was used to accelerate the ions emitted from the plasma at INFN-LNS laser facility. Time-of-flight technique is employed to measure the mean ion energies of the post-accelerated particles. Ion charge states and energy distributions were measured through an ion energy spectrometer.     

A Study of the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy of Carbon in the Ultraviolet Wavelength Range Under Vacuum Conditions

The influence of a vacuum on the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) of carbon in the ultraviolet wavelength range is studied.Experiments are performed with graphite using a LIBS system,which consists of a 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser,a vacuum pump,a spectrometer and a vacuum chamber.The vacuum varies from 10 Pa to 1 atm.Atomic lines as well as singly and doubly charged ions are confirmed under the vacuums.A temporal evolution analysis of intensity is performed for the atomic lines of C Ⅰ 193.09 nm and C Ⅰ 247.86 nm under different vacuum conditions.Both time-integrated and time-resolved intensity evolutions under vacuums are achieved.The lifetimes of the two atomic lines have similar trends,which supports the point of view of a 'soft spot'.Variations of plasma temperature and electron density under different vacuums are measured.This study is helpful for research on carbon detection using LIBS under vacuum conditions.     

Temporal and spatial dynamics of optical emission from laser ablation of the first wall materials of fusion device

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) has been developed to in situ diagnose the chemical compositions of the first wall in the EAST tokamak. However, the dynamics of optical emission of the key plasma-facing materials, such as tungsten, molybdenum and graphite have not been investigated in a laser produced plasma(LPP) under vacuum. In this work, the temporal and spatial dynamics of optical emission were investigated using the spectrometer with ICCD.Plasma was produced by an Nd:YAG laser(1064 nm) with pulse duration of 6 ns. The results showed that the typical lifetime of LPP is less than 1.4 μs, and the lifetime of ions is shorter than atoms at ~10~(-6)mbar. Temporal features of optical emission showed that the optimized delay times for collecting spectra are from 100 to 400 ns which depended on the corresponding species. For spatial distribution, the maximum LIBS spectral intensity in plasma plume is obtained in the region from 1.5 to 3.0 mm above the sample surface. Moreover, the plasma expansion velocity involving the different species in a multicomponent system was measured for obtaining the proper timing(gate delay time and gate width) of the maximum emission intensity and for understanding the plasma expansion mechanism. The order of expansion velocities for various species is V_C~+ V_H V_(Si)~+ V_(Li) V_(Mo) V_W.These results could be attributed to the plasma sheath acceleration and mass effect. In addition, an optimum signal-to-background ratio was investigated by varying both delay time and detecting position.     

Use of the Hot-Electron Mirror Machine Interem as a High-Z Ion Source

Production of the high-Z charge states in helium, nitrogen, and argon has been measured in the INTEREM device at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The INTEREM device contains a hot electron (~500 keV) plasma trapped in a minimum B geometry. The device is of interest because its parameters, electron density and energy, and ion lifetime are consistent with those required for the production of highly charged ions. Ion charge and ion energy spectra were measured independently using an einzel lens type energy analyzer combined with a quadrupole mass filter. For helium, most of the ions were doubly charged under proper operating conditions. For nitrogen, we found the ion yield to be peaked at Q = 4, and under these conditions the yield at Q = 6 was down by a factor of about 20. Energy distribution curves for different charge states show interesting features, from which important information may be inferred about the plasma in INTEREM. Although discrepancies exist in the ion yields we conclude that an INTEREM-like device employing a minimum B geometry and electron cyclotron resonance heating may be expected to be a good high-Z ion source.     

VUV-Spectroscopy of Multiply Charged Ion Source-Plasmas

The ion charge state distribution (CSD) in a multiply charged ion source- (MCIS-) plasma can be determined from the spectrum of resonance transitions of excited neutral and ionised plasma particles. The principle of this method, which for noble gas ions involves vacuum-ultraviolet spectroscopy, is described and first measurements for a DUOPLASMATRON-ion source operated with He and Ar are presented.     

Duoplasmatron Ion Sources

A survey on questions related to the production of multiply charged ions with the Duoplasmatron ion source is given. In spite of differences of the multiply charged ion source and the mass separator type, design considerations show that high containment is a common feature to be attained in both subjects. Multiply charged metal ions are produced by material evaporation into the magnetically confined anodic plasma and auxiliary gas feed into the cathode discharge regions. Energy spreads of ion beams from the low and the high arc current source are compared. The Duoplasmatron ion source proves to be a hygieneous source of high containment that permits the production of medium charge states up to 9+ for xenon at modest energy spread and good brilliance of the extracted ion beam in a high current-low voltage discharge mode.     

Numerical simulation of the plasma acceleration process in a magnetically enhanced micro-cathode vacuum arc thruster

A particle-in-cell simulation is conducted to investigate the plasma acceleration process in a micro-cathode vacuum arc thruster. A coaxial electrode structure thruster with an applied magnetic field configuration is used to investigate the effects of the distribution of the magnetic field on the acceleration process and the mechanism of electrons and ions. The modeling results show that due to the small Larmor radius of electrons, they are magnetized and bound by the magnetic field lines to form a narrow electron channel. Heavy ions with a large Larmor radius take a long time to keep up with the electron movement. The presence of a magnetic field strengthens the charge separation phenomenon. The electric field caused by the charge separation is mainly responsible for the ion acceleration downstream of the computation. The impact of variations in the distribution of the magnetic field on the acceleration of the plasma is also investigated in this study, and it is found that the position of the magnetic coil relative to the thruster exit has an important impact on the acceleration of ions. In order to increase the axial velocity of heavy ions, the design should be considered to reduce the confinement of the magnetic field on the electrons in the downstream divergent part of the applied magnetic field.     

Computer investigation of ion beam optics for a Freeman type ion source system

The present work investigates the computer analysis of the ion beam properties produced by a Freeman type system. The extraction for such system is composed of four electrodes that permit to keep a fixed output energy by means of two accelerating gaps and one decelerating gap. The latter allows reducing the beam divergence angle. The combination of the acceleration/deceleration sections provides to keep a low beam emittance at the source outlet. The simulation of single charged argon ion trajectories for a plasma concave of curvature 4 mm was first studied with and without space charge effect using acceleration/deceleration extraction system with the aid of the SIMION computer program. The voltage applied to the accelerating electrode was optimized to accomplish the suitable ion trajectories without hitting the extraction electrode. Then, two additional studies were performed: the influence of the acceleration voltage and extraction voltage on the beam emittance and beam diameter; and the effect of the extraction gap width (distance between the plasma emission surface and the acceleration electrode) on the shape of the ion beam envelope and the position of the ion beam waist. Last, the influence of the space charge on the ion beam envelope was also investigated.     

An Experimental Apparatus for Low Energy High Charge Heavy Ions to Study Collisions on Atomic Hydrogen

The design and performance of a recoil ion source system which includes a recoil ion source, atomic hydrogen thermal oven target and an electrostatic analysis system will be discussed. The recoil ion source produces low velocity highly charged ions via collisions between heavy fast pump beams from the EN tandem accelerator and target gases. Time-of-flight techniques provide initial recoil charge state separation. Collisions of the recoils with atomic hydrogen are being studied. The atomic hydrogen is provided by a thermal oven which features long life time operation and low input power requirements. Dissociation fractions of 80% are achieved for 300 watts of input power. A hemispherical electrostatic analyzer allows the final charge states of the recoil ions to be determined thereby allowing the measurement of charge exchange processes for an energy range of 100 eV/q to 5000 eV/q for the incident recoil ions.     

A New Collective Effect, High Flux Ion Accelerator

A new type of accelerator capable of producing a large flux of medium energy ions is discussed. The accelerator contains a charge neutral plasma in a magnetic field. Electron currents parallel to B? heat the plasma electrons to an average energy kTe by the Joule process. The electrons try to escape from the plasma into an adjacent vacuum region along the magnetic field lines. In doing so they create a charge separation electric field which collectively accelerates the ions to energies ?10 kTe . The large resistivity necessary to obtain both the rapid heating and impedance matching to high power sources results from electron streaming instabilities in the plasma. Feasibility is investigated using a one dimensional, time dependent fluid model. In this model a realistic circuit is coupled to the plasma electrons. The resultant plasma heating and expansion are numerically followed in time and space. These calculations seem to imply that present day technology utilizing high voltage Blumlein transmission lines (Z ? 1?) seem capable of creating a 10 MeV proton stream with energy >10 kJ, and equivalent current density >10 kA/cm2     

Modelling of electronegative collisional warm plasma for plasma-surface interaction process

An electronegative collisional plasma having warm and massive positive ions, non-extensive distributed electrons and Boltzmann distributed negative ions is modelled for the plasma-surface interaction process that is used for the surface nitriding. Specifically the sheath formation is evaluated through the Bohm's criterion, which is found to be modified, and the variation of the sheath thickness and profiles of the density of plasma species and the net space charge density in the sheath region in addition to the electric potential. The effect of ion temperature, nonextensivity and collisional parameter is examined in greater detail considering the collisional cross-section to obey power-law dependency on the positive ion velocity. The positive ions are found to enter in the sheath region at lower velocities in the collisional plasma compared to the case of collision-less plasma; this velocity sees minuscule reduction with increasing nonextensivity. The increasing ion temperature and collisional parameter lead to the formation of sheath with smaller thickness.     

Numerical simulation of laser-induced plasma in background gas considering multiple interaction processes

Laser-induced plasma is often produced in the presence of background gas, which causes some new physical processes. In this work, a two-dimensional axisymmetric radiation fluid dynamics model is used to numerically simulate the expansion process of plasma under different pressures and gases, in which the multiple interaction processes of diffusion, viscosity and heat conduction between the laser ablated target vapor and the background gas are further considered, and the spatio-temporal evolutions of plasma parameters(species number density, expansion velocity,size and electron temperature) as well as the emission spectra are obtained. The consistency between the actual and simulated spectra of aluminum plasma in 1 atm argon verifies the correctness of the model and the numerical simulation, thus providing a refinement analysis method for the basic research of plasma expansion in gases and the application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.     

Plasma-laser characterization by electrostatic mass quadrupole analyzer

A study of laser ablation of different metals (aluminium, zinc, tantalum and lead), in vacuum, by using 3 ns Nd:YAG laser radiation, at 532 nm wavelength, is reported. Laser pulse, at intensities of the order of 10⁹ W/cm², produces high non-isotropic emission of neutrals and ionic species. Mass quadrupole spectrometry, associated to electrostatic ion deflection, allows estimation of the energy distributions of the emitted species within the plume as a function of the incident laser energy. Neutrals show typical Boltzmann distributions while ions show Coulomb-Boltzmann-shifted distributions. The plasma characterization is rationalized in terms of kinetic energies of ejected particles, ion, electron and neutral temperatures, ion charge states, and plasma density. A special regard is given to the parameters which regulate the plasma temperature: the boiling point, the electron density and the ionization potentials of the ablated elements. The ion acceleration processes occurring inside the plasma due to the high electrical field generated in the non-equilibrium plasma conditions are presented and discussed.     

Numerical simulation program of multicomponent ion beam transport from ECR ion source

In order to research multi-component ion beam transport process and improve transport efficiency, a special simulating program for ECR beam is becoming more and more necessary. We have developed a program written by Visual Basic to be dedicated to numerical simulation of the highly charged ion beam and to optimization of beam dynamics in transport line. In the program the exchange of electrons between highly charged ions and low charged ions or neutral atoms (residual gas in transport line) is taken into account, adopting classical molecular over-barrier model and Monte Carlo method, so the code can easily give the change of charge state distribution along the transmission line. The main advantage of the code is the ability to simultaneously simulate a large quantity of ions with different masses and charge states, and particularly, to simulate the loss of highly charged ions and the increase of low charged ions due to electron exchange in the whole transport process. Some simulations have been done to study the transmission line of LECR3 which is an ECR ion source for highly charged ion beam at IMP. Compared with experimental results, the simulations are considered to be successful.     

Anomalous acceleration of ions in a plasma accelerator with an anodic layer

In a plasma accelerator with an anodic layer(PAAL), we discovered experimentally the effect of‘super-acceleration' of the bulk of the ions to energies W exceeding the energy equivalent to the discharge voltage Vd. The E?×?B discharge was ignited in an environment of atomic argon and helium and molecular nitrogen. Singly charged argon ions were accelerated most effectively in the case of the largest discharge currents and pressure P of the working gas. Helium ions with W??eV_d(e being the electron charge) were only recorded at maximum pressures. Molecular nitrogen was not accelerated to energies W??e Vd. Anomalous acceleration is realized in the range of radial magnetic fields on the anode 2.8?×?10~(–2)≤B_(rA)≤4?×?10~(–2) T. It was also found analytically that the cathode of the accelerator can receive anomalously accelerated ions. In this case, the value of the potential in the anodic layer becomes higher than the anode potential, and the anode current exceeds some critical value. Numerical modeling in terms of the developed theory showed qualitative agreement between modeling data and measurements.     

Spectrum-Averaged One-Group Cross Sections of Actinides Based on JENDL-3

When uranium vapor is generated with an electron beam evaporator, a uranium plasma is formed on the evaporating surface. This plasma rises and expands with the vapor. Propagation behavior of this plasma was investigated by measuring plasma parameters, drift energy of ions and vapor flux along the propagation path. Over the range of 20-50 cm from the evaporation surface, the plasma density decreased from 3 × 10⁹ cm^?3 to 3 × 10⁸ cm^?3, while the electron temperature had a constant value of 0.29 eV. When the space potential was lowered from 1.48 to 0.80 V, the plasma ions were accelerated to increase the drift energy from 1.50 to 2.14 eV. Validity of the Boltzmann electron distribution was checked by comparing the space potential distribution with the plasma density distribution, and also the floating potential distribution with the ion flux distribution. These results confirm that the ambipolar diffusion governs the plasma propagation behavior. The change in the plasma density during its propagation occurred not only by an increase of plasma volume, but by the ion acceleration toward the propagation direction as well.     

Calculation of Electrical Potential and Dust Particle Charge in a Double Dusty Plasma Device

Dusty plasma consists of macroscopic particles of nanometer to micrometer size immersed in a gaseous plasma environment. It can be observed by introducing a flow of molecular impurity in a double plasma device. The impurity particles will be charged quickly, while keeping relatively in low temperature. The particles typically attain several hundred or thousand elementary charges due to the inflow of plasma electron and ions. The dust particles potential and electrical charge in plasma with two ions at different temperatures is calculated. Electrical charge of dust particles is self consistently determined by local plasma electron and ion currents. It is found out that the dust particle potential is strongly affected by the mass and temperature difference of plasma ions.     

A Penning Ion Source for Multiply Charged Ions

The ion source described in this contribution allows the production of considerable ion beam intensities of highly charged ions. The electron density is increased by an additional electron gun. The decrease-of the ratio of neighbouring charge states is similar to the decrease of the ratio of the ionization cross sections by electron impact from which one event ionization processes are assumed to be of major importance in the performance of this source.     

Investigation of self-generated magnetic field and dynamics of a pulsed plasma flow

Due to the growing interest in studying the compression and disruption of the plasma filament in magnetic fusion devices and Z-pinches, this work may be important for new developments in the field of controlled thermonuclear fusion. Recently, on a coaxial plasma accelerator, we managed to obtain the relatively long-lived (∼300 μs) plasma filaments with its self-magnetic field. This was achieved after modification of the experimental setup by using high-capacitive and low-inductive energy storage capacitor banks, as well as electrical cables with low reactive impedance. Furthermore, we were able to avoid the reverse reflection of the plasma flux from the end of the plasma accelerator by installing a special plasma-absorbing target. Thus, these constructive changes of the experimental setup allowed us to investigate the physical properties of the plasma filament by using the comprehensive diagnostics including Rogowski coil, magnetic probes, and Faraday cup. As a result, such important plasma parameters as density of ions and temperature of electrons in plasma flux, time dependent plasma filament's azimuthal magnetic field were measured in discharge gap and at a distance of 23.5 cm from the tip of the cathode. In addition, the current oscillograms and I–V characteristics of the plasma accelerator were obtained. In the experiments, we also observed the charge separation during the acceleration of plasma flow via oscillograms of electron and ion beam currents.     

State promotion and neutralization оf ions near metal surface

When a multiply charged ion with charge Z approaches the metal surface, a dipole is formed by the multiply charged ion and the charge induced in the metal. The states for such a dipole are promoted into continuum with decreasing ion-surface distance and cross the states formed from metal atom. The model proposed explains the dominant population of deep bound states in collisions considered.