Dependence of ion cyclotron resonance on electrostatic potentials

The effect of the electron beam and electrostatic cell potentials on the spatial distribution of ions in a standard cyclotron resonance (ICR) cell is experimentally investigated. At low electron currents an "ad hoc" model of Bloom and Riggin accounting for the effect of the spatial distribution on the ICR line width and resonant field is found to describe adequately some of the complexities of the system. The influence of the distribution of initial ionic velocities on the ICR signal is also discussed and one alternate ion production technique is presented.