Diagnostics of charge breeder electron cyclotron resonance ion source plasma with consecutive transients method

Abstract

The consecutive transients (CT) method is a diagnostics approach combining experimental and computational techniques to probe the plasma parameters of Charge Breeder Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Sources (CB-ECRIS). The method is based on short pulse injection of singly charged ions into the charge breeder plasma, and the measurement of the resulting transients of the charge bred multiply charged ions. Estimates for plasma density, average electron energy and characteristic times of ion confinement, electron impact ionization and charge exchange are then computationally derived from the experimental data. Here the CT method is applied for parametric studies of CBECRIS plasma. Potassium ions were charge bred with hydrogen support plasma, and the effects of varied microwave power, neutral gas pressure and magnetic field strength on the plasma parameters and charge breeding efficiency are presented. It is shown that the method is sufficiently sensitive to provide relevant information on changing plasma conditions with the control parameters. The neutral gas pressure had the strongest impact on the plasma parameters, and the results agree with trends obtained by using other diagnostic methods, e.g. the increase of plasma density with increased neutral gas pressure. Furthermore, the method can provide information inaccessible with other methods, such as the characteristic times of ion confinement, ionization and charge exchange, and the hierarchy between them. The results show that the peak charge breeding efficiency is obtained for the highest ion charge state for which the ionization time remains shorter than the charge exchange and the ion confinement times.