Electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources

Starting with the pioneering work of R. Geller and his group in Grenoble (France), at least 14 ECR sources have been built and tested during the last five years. Most of those sources have been extremely successful, providing intense, stable and reliable beams of highly charged ions for cyclotron injection or atomic physics research. However, some of the operational features of those sources disagreed with commonly accepted theories on ECR source operation. To explain the observed behavior of actual sources, it was found necessary to refine some of the crude ideas we had about ECR sources. Some of those new propositions are explained, and used to make some extrapolations on the possible future developments in ECR sources