Results from energetic electron beam metal vapor vacuum arc and Z-discharge plasma metal vapor vacuum arc: Development of new sources of intense high charge state heavy-ion beams

Abstract

We are exploring a new approach for heavy-ion beam injection (e.g., into the relativistic heavy-ion collider at BNL), as well as new sources of intense high charge state ions to be mounted on a relatively low voltage platform for high energy ion implantation. While conventional metal vapor vacuum arc (Mevva) ion sources can produce up to hundreds of milliamps or more of several-times-ionized metal ions (e.g., U3+), the recent results from Batalin et al. indicate that the addition of an energetic electron beam may lead to considerably higher charge states. An alternative way to produce the electron beam is where a Z-discharge plasma is used to enhance multiple ionization. As the vacuum arc plasma plume expands into a magnetized drift region, a Z-discharge is triggered in the drifting metal plasma. The ions are then extracted and analyzed using a time-of-flight system. We report initial results using these schemes with applied discharge and electron beam voltages from 1 to 2 kV.