A comparison of the -emission properties of pasty, liquid and glassy -eucryptite ion sources

Abstract

The emission properties of the -eucryptite compound in the pasty, liquid and glassy forms were investigated. It was found that the liquid -eucryptite emits ten times more lithium than does its pasty counterpart whereas the glassy one not only keeps this high emission property but is also a very convenient ion source due to its being much easier to handle, making it a valuable candidate for a -ion source for low-energy fast neutral lithium beam diagnostics (<10 keV). Our results suggest that it should be possible to measure the plasma-density fluctuations besides the densities with such diagnostics. The lifetime of the lithium emitter in high-current-extraction mode is much increased when glassy sources are used. Furthermore, using the same transformation method for all other aluminosilicates used for extraction of alkali-metal and thallium ions may improve their output, making new possibilities available in the area of basic atomic physics and in the field of heavy-ion-beam probe plasma diagnostics.