Guiding of slow Ne7+ ions through nanocapillaries in insulating polyethylene terephthalate: Incident current dependence

The transmission of highly charged ions through nanocapillaries in insulating polyethylene terephthalate (PET) polymers was investigated. In experiments at laboratories in RIKEN (Japan) and HMI (Germany) different detection methods were applied to study the ion current dependence in a wide range covering two orders of magnitude. At HMI an electrostatic ion spectrometer was used and at RIKEN a two-dimensional position sensitive detector was implemented. New PET samples with parallel capillaries and low density were manufactured. For tilted capillaries, the ions are guided along the capillary axis, since the majority of ions are deflected in a charge patch created in the capillary entrance. The results provide insights into the mechanisms of capillary guiding. The fraction of transmitted ions was found to be nearly independent on the incident ion current indicating a sudden increase in the discharge current depleting the entrance charge patch. The experimental results were well-reproduced by model calculations based on a nonlinear (exponential) expression for the discharge current