Comparison of Langmuir probe and optical emission spectroscopy on a volume-cusp filament ion source using helium.

Abstract

D-Pace has a Penning ion source that runs with helium for studies of α-particle production. We want to study its plasma properties as a function of varying operational parameters, which results in varied output ion beam characteristics. In order to diagnose the ion source plasma, a collisional-radiative code for helium to be used with optical emission spectroscopy measurements is developed. This has the advantage of being non-invasive, which allows for measurements using the emitted light from the plasma. This collisional-radiative code is shown to compare well with the Yacora on the Web model developed at IPP-Garching, and improves upon it with the addition of radiation trapping. Furthermore, the sensitivity of this model to the inclusion of additional excited state populations and non-Maxwellian electron energy distribution functions is investigated. It is shown that non-Maxwellian distributions can significantly affect spectroscopy measurements. This diagnostic is benchmarked to Langmuir probe measurements on the TRIUMF-licensed volume-cusp ion source to determine whether it can replicate the measured electron density and electron temperature as a function of varied operational parameters. The operational parameters are helium gas flow (10-40 SCCM), arc voltage (100-200V), and arc current (1-5A). The measured plasma properties, while different in absolute value, have similar trends for each operational parameter except when varying arc voltage. It is shown that this mismatch as a function of arc voltage is likely due to high energy non-Maxwellian electrons from the cathode sheath, which are not included within the collisional-radiative model.