ECR [Electron Cyclotron Resonance] ion sources for cyclotrons

In the last decade ECR (Electron Cyclotron Resonance) ion sources have evolved from a single large, power consuming, complex prototype into a variety of compact, simple, reliable, efficient, high performance sources of high charge state ions for accelerators and atomic physics. The coupling of ECR sources to cyclotrons has resulted in significant performance gains in energy, intensity, reliability, and variety of ion species. Seven ECR sources are in regular operation with cyclotrons and numerous other projects are under development or in the planning stag. At least four laboratories have ECR sources dedicated for atomic physics research and other atomic physics programs share ECR sources with cyclotrons. An ECR source is now installed on the injector for the CERN SPS synchrotron to accelerate O8+ to relativistic energies. A project is underway at Argonne to couple an ECR source to a superconducting heavy-ion linac. Although tremendous progress has been made, the field of ECR sources is still a relatively young technology and there is still the potential for further advances both in source development and understanding of the plasma physics. The development of ECR sources is reviewed. The important physics mechanisms which come into play in the operation of ECR Sources are discussed, along with various models for charge state distributions (CSD). The design and performance of several ECR sources are compared. The 88-Inch Cyclotron and the LBL ECR is used as an example of cyclotron+ECR operation. The future of ECR sources is considered