NSCL, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Heavy ion accelerator laboratories for nuclear science and rare isotope research require a wide array of high intensity heavy ion beams. Due to their versatility and robustness, Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion sources are the choice injectors for the majority of these facilities worldwide. Steady improvements in the performance of ECR ion sources have been successful in providing intense primary beams for facilities such as the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL). However, next generation heavy ion beam laboratories, such as the Facility for Rare Isotope Beam (FRIB), require intensities that approaching the limits of current possibility with state of the art ion source technology. In this proceedings, we present the ongoing low energy beam transport characterization efforts of a superconducting ECR ion source injector system at the MSU NSCL.
NSCL, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
FRIB, East Lansing, USA
MSU, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Existing heavy ion facilities such as the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University rely on Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion sources as injectors of highly charged ion beams. Long ion confinement times are necessary to produce dense populations of highly charged ions because of steadily decreasing ionization cross sections with increasing charge state. To further understand ion extraction and confinement we are using a fast sputtering technique first developed at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) [1] to introduce a small amount of uranium metal into the plasma at a well-defined time. We present an analytical solution to the coupled ion density rate equations for using a piecewise constant neutral density to interpret the fast sputtering method.
*R. Vondrasek et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 73, 548-551 (2002).
