Electron Beam Ion Source Charge Research Articles

Status of the High-Current Electron-Beam Ion Source Charge Breeder for the Facility for Rare-Isotope Beams

The Reaccelerator (ReA) of the Facility for Rare-Isotope Beams (FRIB) employs an Electron-Beam Ion Trap (EBIT) as a charge breeder to reaccelerate rare-isotope beams up to 12 MeV/u. The ReA EBIT produces an electron current of 300 – 600 mA. The maximum trap capacity of the ReA EBIT is 1010 elementary charges. FRIB production rates are expected to exceed 1010 particles/s in some cases in the future. There is also a user demand for reaccelerated stable-isotope beams of more than 1010 pps. To handle these rates and provide redundancy, a High Current Electron-Beam Ion Source (HCEBIS) has been built and is now being commissioned. An electron-beam current of 2 A with a 50 % duty cycle has been transported through a 4-T field. An upcoming upgrade to increase the electron-beam current up to 4 A will allow for a maximum trap capacity of 2.4×1011 elementary charges. We present the status of the HCEBIS, including the results of the electron-beam commissioning and systematic studies.

Enhancement of charge breeding efficiency for rare isotope beam with the control of magnetic field profile and electron beam energy in EBIS

The magnetic field in the ion trap of electron beam ion source (EBIS) determines the current density of electron beam and thus the depth of trap potential, which affects the charge breeding efficiency to desired charge state. An EBIS charge breeder has been constructed to be used for the Rare Isotope Science Project in Korea. A 6 T superconducting solenoid is used for the trap, and uniform magnetic field is extended with correction coils at the ends. The effect of field uniformity on the electron current density is evaluated using TRAK, and it is shown sizable improvement in the charge breeding efficiency for rare isotope beams can be obtained by elaborate magnetic design. Furthermore, the electron beam energy affects the ionization efficiency. The electron energy is often reduced in the trap for optimal matching with charge striping cross section. However, virtual cathode formation can appear in the process of energy reduction. Maximum beam currents limited by electron energy are studied analytically and by TRAK simulation in the view of improving the charge breeding efficiency.

Development of a prototype radio-frequency system for a radio-frequency quadrupole cooler buncher in the rare isotope science project.

Radioactive ion beams produced using the isotope separation on-line method in the Rare isotope Accelerator complex for ON-line (RAON) experiment are to be delivered with a beam emittance of around 3 π mm mrad, an energy spread of less than 10 eV, and a short beam bunch width of around 10 µs to meet the requirements of an electron beam ion source charge breeder. A radio frequency quadrupole cooler buncher (RFQ-CB) will be used to meet the beam quality requirements mentioned above. Our target bunching capacity of RFQ-CB is 108 ions/bunch for various ion species. Such a high bunching capacity requires an RF amplitude of ∼3 kV and a frequency range of 1.5-4.5 MHz in our RFQ-CB design. We designed and tested the prototype RF system composed of a helical resonator, a high-power RF amplifier, and high-voltage probes. To reduce heat load to the high voltage probes, we employed vacuum capacitors serially connected to the ends of helical resonators. In the experiment, we confirmed that our 4.5-µH helical resonators made of a 12-mm copper tube and variable vacuum capacitor with a capacitance range of 120-1120 pF can produce required voltages and frequencies using a 100-W RF amplifier. As a result, with 2.5-W RF output power, we obtained the maximum voltage amplitude of 1 kV at 4.5 MHz, which is equivalent to 6.4 kV with 100-W RF output power.

Four-harmonic buncher for radioactive and stable beams switching at the ATLAS facility

The Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) is planning an upgrade to a multi-user facility to simultaneously accelerate both stable beams from an ECR ion source and radioactive beams from an Electron Beam Ion Source charge breeder. The ATLAS Multi-User Upgrade will need to provide high transmission of ion beams with a mass-to-charge ratio up to 7 as it enables more options to alternate radioactive and stable beams. Currently, the bunching is provided with a lumped circuit multi-harmonic buncher, which cannot effectively operate at the required amplitude of the saw-tooth voltage for ions with mass-to-charge ratio of 7 due to thermal issues.RadiaBeam Systems in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory has designed a four-harmonic coaxial resonator buncher with the ATLAS fundamental frequency of 12.125 MHz, and a compact, less than 2-m-long, footprint, capable of providing the required voltage of 6.2 kV. This device allows fast and reliable pre-bunching of DC ion beams with the capability of fast switching of heavy-ion radioactive and stable beams for delivery to multiple users. In this paper, we will discuss the RF and engineering design considerations of this buncher.

New ion source dramatically improves radioactive beams for CARIBU facility

A new Electron Beam Ion Source Charge Breeder operated with the CARIBU and ATLAS facilities dramatically reduces background contamination in radioactive beams, improving abilities of neutron-rich nuclei.

Charge breeding of radioactive isotopes at the CARIBU facility with an electron beam ion source.

An Electron Beam Ion Source Charge Breeder (EBIS-CB) has been developed at Argonne National Laboratory as part of the californium rare ion breeder upgrade. For the past year, the EBIS-CB has been undergoing commissioning as part of the ATLAS accelerator complex. It has delivered both stable and radioactive beams with A/Q < 6, breeding times <30 ms, low background contamination, and charge breeding efficiencies >18% into a single charge state. The operation of this device, challenges during the commissioning phase, and future improvements will be discussed.

Design of an EBIS charge breeder system for rare-isotope beams

Rare-isotope beams will be produced by using the isotope separation on-line (ISOL) system at the Rare Isotope Science Project (RISP). A proton cyclotron is the driver accelerator for ISOL targets, and uranium carbide (UCx) will be a major target material. An isotope beam of interest extracted from the target will be ionized and selected by using a mass separator. The beam emittance will then be reduced by using a radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) cooler before the beam is injected into the electron-beam ion-source (EBIS) charge breeder (CB). The maximum electron beam current of the EBIS is 3 A from a cathode made of IrCe in an applied magnetic field of 0.2 T. The size of the electron beam is compressed by magnetic fields of up to 6 T caused in the charge-breeding region by a superconducting solenoid. The design of EBIS-CB was performed by using mechanics as well as beam optics. A test stand for the electron gun and its collector, which can take an electron-beam power of 20 kW, are under construction. The gun assembly was first tested by using a high-voltage pulse so as to measure its perveance. The design of the EBIS, along with its test stand, is described.

Off-line commissioning of EBIS and plans for its integration into ATLAS and CARIBU.

An Electron Beam Ion Source Charge Breeder (EBIS-CB) has been developed at Argonne to breed radioactive beams from the CAlifornium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade (CARIBU) facility at Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS). The EBIS-CB will replace the existing ECR charge breeder to increase the intensity and significantly improve the purity of reaccelerated radioactive ion beams. The CARIBU EBIS-CB has been successfully commissioned offline with an external singly charged cesium ion source. The performance of the EBIS fully meets the specifications to breed rare isotope beams delivered from CARIBU. The EBIS is being relocated and integrated into ATLAS and CARIBU. A long electrostatic beam transport system including two 180° bends in the vertical plane has been designed. The commissioning of the EBIS and the beam transport system in their permanent location will start at the end of this year.

Simulation and design of an electron beam ion source charge breeder for the californium rare isotope breeder upgrade

An electron beam ion source (EBIS) will be constructed and used to charge breed ions from the californium rare isotope breeder upgrade (CARIBU) for postacceleration into the Argonne tandem linear accelerator system (ATLAS). Simulations of the EBIS charge breeder performance and the related ion transport systems are reported. Propagation of the electron beam through the EBIS was verified, and the anticipated incident power density within the electron collector was identified. The full normalized acceptance of the charge breeder with a 2 A electron beam, $0.024\ensuremath{\pi}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mm}\text{ }\mathrm{mrad}$ for nominal operating parameters, was determined by simulating ion injection into the EBIS. The optics of the ion transport lines were carefully optimized to achieve well-matched ion injection, to minimize emittance growth of the injected and extracted ion beams, and to enable adequate testing of the charge bred ions prior to installation in ATLAS.

Prospects for advanced electron cyclotron resonance and electron beam ion source charge breeding methods for EURISOL

As the most ambitious concept of isotope separation on line (ISOL) facility, EURISOL aims at producing unprecedented intensities of post-accelerated radioactive isotopes. Charge breeding, which transforms the charge state of radioactive beams from 1+ to an n+ charge state prior to post-acceleration, is a key technology which has to overcome the following challenges: high charge states for high energies, efficiency, rapidity and purity. On the roadmap to EURISOL, a dedicated R&D is being undertaken to push forward the frontiers of the present state-of-the-art techniques which use either electron cyclotron resonance or electron beam ion sources. We describe here the guidelines of this R&D.

Charge breeding of isotope on-line-created radioactive ions using an electron cyclotron resonance ion trap

In the coming years huge ion-beam projects are foreseen. They deal with specific isotope on-line (ISOL) beams such as ISOL-created radioactive ions. The beam intensities are exceptionally high (&amp;gt;1012ions∕s), the radioactive lifetimes are short (⩽1s), and the ion energy is very high (⩾150GeV∕u). In general in order to minimize the size of the accelerator one needs highly charged ISOL ions and therefore charge breeders are a must. In contrast with the CERN system, utilizing a Penning trap and an electron-beam ion source charge breeder (where the maximum ion beam cannot exceed 106ions∕s) the Grenoble group launched in 1995 an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) system capable of storing 1012ions∕s and delivering highly charged ISOL ions. In this article we show that this storage is possible for low-ion-energy ISOL ions following classical slowing down theory. In this case the injected ISOL ions are slowed down by ion-ion collisions which yield ion storage inside the ECR plasma, but also charge breeding by the energetic ECR electrons bombarding the slowed down ions.