Production of large area high current ion beams

A newly designed microwave ion source has produced with a hydrogen ion beam up to 0.5 A steady state operation with ion energy of 1 keV. The 4 cm diam extraction electrodes are multiple apertures and are arranged in an accel-decel arrangement. Maximum divergence is 2° from the beam axis. The beam is 85% molecular ions, of which either the diatomic or triatomic component can be maximized by an adjustment of the gas fed to a discharge region. The source is technologically simple, inexpensive, and long lived. The basic concepts underlying the production of ion beams are described.