Alkali suppression within laser ion-source cavities and time structure of the laser ionized ion-bunches

Abstract

The chemical selectivity of the target and ion-source production system is an asset for radioactive ion-beam (RIB) facilities equipped with mass separators. Ionization via laser induced multiple resonant steps has such selectivity. However, the selectivity of the ISOLDE resonant ionization laser ion-source (RILIS), where ionization takes place within high temperature refractory metal cavities, suffers from unwanted surface ionization of low ionization potential alkalis. In order to reduce this type of isobaric contaminant, surface ionization within the target vessel was used. On-line measurements of the efficiency of this method is reported, suppression factors of alkalis up to an order of magnitude were measured as a function of their ionization potential. The time distribution of the ion-bunches produced with the RILIS was measured for a variety of elements and high temperature cavity materials. While all ions are produced within a few nanoseconds, the ion-bunch sometimes spreads over more than 100 μs. This demonstrates that ions are confined within high temperature metallic cavities. It is the internal electrical field of these cavities that causes the ions to drifts to the extraction region and defines the dwell time of the ions in the cavity. Beam optics calculations were carried out to simulate the pulse shape of a RILIS ion-bunch and are compared to the actual measurements.