Plasmas in compact traps: From ion sources to multidisciplinary research

In linear (minimum-B) magneto-static traps dense and hot plasmas are heated by electromagnetic radiation in the GHz domain via the Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR). The values of plasma density, temperature and confinement times (n_eτ_i > 10 ¹³cm⁻³ s; T_e > 10 keV) are similar to the ones of thermonuclear plasmas. The research in this field —devoted to heating and confinement optimization— has been supported by numerical modeling and advanced diagnostics, for probing the plasma especially in a non-invasive way. ECR-based systems are nowadays able to produce extremely intense (tens or hundreds of mA) beams of light ions (p, d, He), and relevant currents of heavier elements (C, O, N) up to heavy ions like Xe, Pb, U. Such beams can be extracted from the trap by a proper electrostatic system. The above-mentioned properties make these plasmas very attractive for interdisciplinary researches also, such as i) nuclear decays rates measurements in stellar-like conditions, ii) energy conversion studies, being exceptional sources of short-wavelength electromagnetic radiation (EUV, X-rays, hard X-rays and gammas, useful in material science and archaeometry), iii) environments allowing precise spectroscopical measurements as benchmarks for magnetized astrophysical plasmas. The talk will give an overview about the state-of-the-art in the field of intense ion sources, and some new perspectives for interdisciplinary research, with a special attention to the developments based at INFN-LNS.