An electron beam ion source for the production of multiply charged heavy ions

An electron beam ion source for the production of multiply-charged heavy ions has been developed. Continuous ion beams of neon, argon, krypton, and xenon ions have been produced. Xenon beam currents are in the range from some 10-9A for Xe10+ up to about 10-6A for charge states lower than q=4 (q=ionic charge state). The energy spread ΔE of the ion beam was measured to be ΔE<=q.50 eV, the emittance epsilon was estimated to be epsilon<1.9πcm.rad(2m.eV)sup(1/2). The ion source proved to be very reliable and simple to operate. There are no apparent problems that limit the lifetime of the source. (Auth.)