Production of high-charge-state thorium and uranium ions in an electron-beam ion trap.

Abstract

High-charge-state thorium (up to 80+) and uranium (up to 70+) ions have been extracted from an electron-beam ion trap (EBIT). The ions were produced after injecting low-charge-state thorium and uranium ions initially from a metallic vapor vacuum arc ion source into the trap. The extracted ions from the EBIT provide microsecond-wide ion-beam pulses of about ${10}^{4}$ ions per second. The production and loss rates are estimated from modeling calculations and are compared to the measured extracted ion rates.