Influence of noble gases on electron cyclotron heated hydrogen plasma

A quartz-chamber 2.45-GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) is designed at Peking University for the diagnostic purpose. Experimental results show that the added noble gases in hydrogen could cause a decrease of electron temperature and an increase of electron density. In this work, a numerical model is upgraded for ECR plasma generated by mixed gases. On this basis, the model is applied for the composed hydrogen plasma with additional noble gases. And dependences of neutral gas density and electron density on electron temperature are presented for individual gas (He, Ar, and H₂) and gas mixture, respectively. The calculated results are basically in accordance with the diagnostic results of ECRIS.     

Milliampere He2+ beam generator using a compact GHz ECRIS

Multi-charged helium ion beam He2+ is useful for helium accelerator to obtain a higher energy with lower cost and for deuterium accelerator to avoid neutron activation during machine commissioning.An attempt to generate milliampere multi-charged helium He2+ion beam with a 2.45 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source(ECRIS) was tested recently.A design using a specfic permanent magnet 2.45 GHz ECRIS(PMECRIS) source(ERCIS) is reported and the He2+beam production ability is described.With this source,we produced a total helium beam of 40 mA at 40 kV with 180 W of net microwave power and a gas flow of less than 0.5 sccm.At steady state the He2+beam intensity is 4.4 mA,that being the fraction of multi-charged helium ion beam is at approximately 11%.     

不同磁路电子回旋共振离子源引出实验

空间推进所用的电子回旋共振离子源(ECRIS)应具有体积小、效率高的特点. 本文研究的ECRIS使用永磁体环产生磁场, 有效减小了体积, 该离子源利用微波在磁场中加热电子, 电子与中性气体发生电离碰撞产生等离子体. 磁场在微波加热电子的过程中起关键作用, 同时影响离子源内等离子体的约束和输运. 通过比较四种磁路结构离子源的离子电流引出特性来研究磁场对10 cm ECRIS性能的影响. 实验发现: 在使用氩气的条件下, 特定结构的离子源可引出160 mA的离子电流, 最高推进剂利用率达60%, 最小放电损耗为120 W·A^-1; 所有离子源均存在多个工作状态, 工作状态在微波功率、气体流量、引出电压变化时会发生突变. 离子源发生状态突变时的微波功率、气体流量的大小与离子源内磁体的位置有关. 通过比较不同离子源的引出离子束流、放电损耗、气体利用率、工作稳定性的差异, 归纳了磁场结构对此种ECRIS引出特性的影响规律, 分析了其中的机理. 实验结果表明: 保持输入微波功率、气体流量、引出电压不变时, 增大共振区的范围、减小共振区到栅极的距离, 离子源能引出更大的离子电流; 减小共振区到微波功率入口、气体入口的距离能降低维持离子源高状态所需的最小微波功率和最小气体流量, 提高气体利用率, 但会导致放电损耗增大. 研究结果有助于深化对此类离子源工作过程的认识, 为其设计和性能优化提供参考.     

Review of highly charged ion production with ECR ion source and the future opportunities for HCI physics

In recent years, there is very intense worldwide research and development work on electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS). Remarkable progress represented by the third generation superconducting ECRIS has been made with regards of intense highly charged ion beam production such as >600 eμA Ar¹⁶⁺, >10 eμA Ar¹⁸⁺, and hundreds of enA He-like Kr³⁴⁺. A low energy heavy ion platform named Low Energy heavy ion Accelerator Facility (LEAF) that features a next generation 45 GHz ECRIS, a 300 kV high voltage platform, a 0.5 MeV/u radio-frequency quadrupole, and several multidisciplinary experimental terminals is under construction at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP). This paper will report on the recent progress with ECRIS dedicated to highly charged ions and the status of LEAF at IMP that will provide new opportunities for highly charged ion physics in the near future.     

Impact of the Vibrationally Excited States on the Macroscopic Behaviour of the Band-like Electron Beam Discharge Plasma in H/H2-Mixture

The investigation of the impact of the vibrationally excited molecules in the electronic ground state was performed by simultaneously solving a balance equation system for the main charge carriers, the H atoms, the metastable H atoms, the H₂ molecules in the different vibrational states and for the power transfer of the electrons in the beam discharge mixture plasma. The balance equations for the vibrational states include in particular one-quantum step excitation and deexcitation, electronic excitation, dissociation and ionization from each vibrational level in electron collisions as well as the finite life time of these states because of the gas transfer through the band-like plasma. A main finding is that due to the additional impact of vibrationally excited molecules there is a marked enhancement of the resulting dissociation and ionization degree in the beam discharge plasma at medium power input from the turbulent electric field. For discharge parameters of practical interest the ionization and dissociation budget, the population of the vibrational states, the different energy dissipation processes and the energy pumping into the ladder of the vibrational states were calculated and discussed in detail.     

Gas mixture effects on ion‐beam flux characteristics from dense plasma focus device: Investigation by the Vlasov–Maxwell equations and experiments

The Vlasov–Maxwell equations were numerically solved to calculate the ion‐beam flux from the plasma of argon and the plasma of mixtures of argon and neon. Some experiments were performed to measure the ion beam from the Amirkabir plasma focus (APF) device. The calculations have shown that the argon ion‐beam flux peaked up to 1.928 × 10³⁰ ions m^?2 s^?1 at the optimum pressure of 1.866 mbar while the neon‐argon mixture's ion‐beam flux reached a maximum of 4.301 × 10³⁰ ions m^?2 s^?1 for 15% neon admixture at the optimum pressure of 1.866 mbar. The calculated kinetic energy of the ion beam has shown a maximum value of 708.7 J for the mixture of 85% argon‐15% neon at the mentioned optimum pressure.     

Optical Emission of Molecular Hydrogen in a Recombining Hydrogen Plasma

We observed optical emission of molecular hydrogen in a recombining hydrogen plasma with an electron temperature of 0.1 eV and an electron density of 3 × 10¹²cm^–3. The optical emission intensities of molecular hydrogen in the recombining plasma were roughly 10%–45% of those in an ionizing plasma with an electron temperature of 4 eV. The ratio was greater for a transition line originated from an excited state with a larger vibrational quantum number. Because of the low electron temperature of 0.1 eV, the production processes of excited states are not considered electron impact excitation in the recombining plasma. Possible recombination processes are discussed which produce excited states of molecular hydrogen in the recombining plasma (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Experimental and computational study of the passage of an electron beam through the curvilinear element of the Drakon stellarator system in a tenuous plasma

Results are presented from the first stage of studies on the passage of an electron beam with energy 100–500 eV in a magnetic field of 300–700 Oe through the curvilinear solenoid of the KRéL unit, the latter being a prototype of the closing segment of the Drakon stellarator system, in the plasma-beam discharge regime. The ion density at the end of the curvilinear part of the chamber, n _i ≈8×10⁸–10¹⁰ cm⁻³, the electron temperature T _e ≈4–15 eV, and the positions at which the beam hits the target for different distances from it to the electron source are determined experimentally. The motion of the electron beam is computationally modeled with allowance for the space charge created by the beam and the secondary plasma. From a comparison of the experimentally measured trajectories and trajectories calculated for different values of the space charge, we have obtained an estimate for the unneutralized ion density of the order of 5×10⁷ cm⁻³. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 69, 22–26 (February 1999)     

Diagnosis of negative hydrogen ions and rovibrational distribution of H<Subscript>2</Subscript> molecule in non-thermal plasmas

Rovibrational excited hydrogen molecule plays an important role for the production of H^- ions. The correlation between H^- ion density and rovibrational distribution of H₂ molecules has been investigated in dielectric barrier discharge hydrogen plasmas via optical emission spectrometry and molecular beam mass spectrometry. The relative vibrational distribution of molecular hydrogen in the electronic ground state has been determined by the best fitting to the Fulcher-α band emission lines. It is shown that the ratio of the Q_(0-0)(1) to Q_(1-1)(1) line is very suitable and simple for the diagnosis of vibrational temperature in the range of 1500 to 7500 K. At certain discharge conditions (ac 40 kHz, 14 kV), the vibrational temperature decreases from 3600 to 2400 K as the pressure increases from 100 to 200 Pa and the negative ions density near the ground electrode also decreases as the pressure increases. Both the hydrogen ions density and the vibrational temperature increase with the increasing of discharge voltage. It is found that the evolution of negative atomic hydrogen ions density greatly depends on the vibrational temperature.     

Microwave power coupling with electron cyclotron resonance plasma using Langmuir probe

Electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma was produced at 2.45 GHz using 200–750 W microwave power. The plasma was produced from argon gas at a pressure of 2 × 10^???4 mbar. Three water-cooled solenoid coils were used to satisfy the ECR resonant conditions inside the plasma chamber. The basic parameters of plasma, such as electron density, electron temperature, floating potential, and plasma potential, were evaluated using the current–voltage curve using a Langmuir probe. The effect of microwave power coupling to the plasma was studied by varying the microwave power. It was observed that the optimum coupling to the plasma was obtained for ~ 600 W microwave power with an average electron density of ~ 6 × 10¹¹ cm^???3 and average electron temperature of ~ 9 eV.     

Electron impact dissociation of ND<Superscript>+</Superscript>: formation of D<Superscript>+</Superscript>

Absolute cross sections for electron impact dissociation of ND⁺ leading to the formation of D⁺ have been measured by applying the animated electron-ion beam method in the energy range from the reaction threshold up to 2.5 keV. The maximum inclusive cross section is observed to be (16.8 ± 0.8) × 10⁻¹⁷ cm² at the electron energy of 65.1 eV. The appearance energy for the D⁺ production is measured to be (4.0 ± 0.5) eV. Collected data are analyzed in details by means of an original procedure in order to determine separately the contributions of dissociative channels. A specific Monte Carlo modeling has been developed, which is proven to reconstruct adequately the dissociative ionization cross section. The present energy thresholds provide information about the ground and excited states of the molecular ion, as well as about the possible population of the vibrational levels. The reaction D₂(v) + N⁺ (or H₂(v) + N⁺) is a probable source for that population and it constitutes the first step of the molecular activated processes, so the corresponding chain of reactions has to be considered to study the chemistry of plasma sources.     

Higher order averages of primary recoil distributions

A molecular beam detector is described which ionizes by electron bombardment. The ions are then separated in a quadrupole mass filter and detected by a multiplier. The special advantages of the mass filter allow a high overall transmission so that every 1000th molecule of the beam is measured as an ion. The ion current due to the residual gas is reduced by a factor of 10^?6 for all masses >45. These results were achieved without separately pumping or baking out the ionisation chamber. Since magnets are not used the detector is comparatively light and small in size. The smallest detectable beam was found to have a current density of 1,8·10^?6 molecules/sec mm² corresponding to 4·10³ molecules/cm³, at a vacuum pressure of 8·10^?7 torr in the apparatus, and using a time constant of 1,25 sec.     

Chemisorption of H2 on W(100): Absolute sticking probability,coverage, and electron stimulated desorption

Measurements of both the absolute sticking probability near normal incidence and the coverage of H₂ adsorbed on W(100) at ~ 300K have been made using a precision gas dosing system; a known fraction of the molecules entering the vacuum chamber struck the sample crystal before reaching a mass spectrometer detector. The initial sticking probability S₀ for H₂/W(100) is 0.51 ± 0.03; the hydrogen coverage extrapolated to S = 0 is 2.0 × 10¹⁵ atoms cm^?2. The initial sticking probability S₀ for D₂/W(100) is 0.57 ± 0.03; the isotope effect for sticking probability is smaller than previously reported. Electron stimulated desorption (ESD) studies reveal that the low coverage β₂ hydrogen state on W(100) yields H⁺ ions upon bombardment by 100 eV electrons; the ion desorption cross section is ~ 1.8 × 10^?23 cm². The H⁺ ion cross section at saturation hydrogen coverage when the β₁ state is fully populated is ? 10^?25 cm². An isotope effect in electron stimulated desorption of H⁺ and D⁺ has been found. The H⁺ ion yield is ? 100 × greater than the D⁺ ion yield, in agreement with theory.     

CW Thomson scattering from a low electron density hydrogen plasma using a photon counting technique

Thomson scattering from a low electron density (3×10¹²cm^?3) stationary hydrogen plasma was performed using a 3 watt CW argon ion laser along with a photon counting technique. An estimation is given for the laser power required for CW Thomson scattering in pulsed plasma experiments.     

The RHIC polarized source upgrade

The RHIC polarized H^? ion source is being upgraded to higher intensity and polarization for use in the RHIC polarization physics program at enhanced luminosity RHIC operation. The higher beam intensity will allow reduction of the longitudinal transverse beam emittance at injection to AGS to reduce polarization losses in AGS. There is also a planned RHIC luminosity upgrade by using the electron beam lens to compensate the beam-beam interaction at collision points. This upgrade is also essential for future BNL plans for a high-luminosity electron-proton (ion) Collider eRHIC. The basic limitations on the high-intensity H^? ion beam production in charge-exchange collisions of the neutral atomic hydrogen beam in the Na-vapor jet ionizer cell were experimentally studied.     

真空弧Ti-H等离子体热力学参数的原子发射光谱双温度研究北大核心CSCD

金属氢化物作阴极的真空弧离子源,假设其放电产生双温度的非平衡态Ti-H等离子体,其内部的气体解离过程和粒子电离过程分别由Culdberg-Waage解离方程和Saha电离方程进行描述,结合原子发射光谱以及电荷准中性条件,求出Ti-H等离子体的电子温度Te、重粒子温度Th和粒子数密度之后,可更进一步对等离子体的质量密度、焓、比热容等热力学参数进行描述。在不同的电子数密度下,研究各参数随变量θ(电子温度Te与重粒子温度Th的比值)变化的情况。计算结果显示:电子数密度已知,随θ值升高,除氢气分子数密度外,等离子体温度和单原子粒子数密度的计算结果均变化甚微。高电子数密度时,等离子体中单原子粒子占绝对优势,热力学参数由其控制;低电子数密度下,随θ值的升高,等离子体逐步由单原子粒子占优势转为氢气分子占绝对优势,热力学参数的变化情况表现出相同的规律。     

Observations of resonant modes formation in microwave generated magnetized plasmas

Ion sources have a significant number of applications in accelerator facilities and in industrial applications. In particular, the electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRIS) are nowadays the most effective devices that can feed particle accelerators in a continuous and reliable way, providing high current beams of low and medium charge state ions and lower, but still remarkable, beam current for highly charged ions. In recent years several experiments have shown that the current, the charge states and even the beam shape change by slightly varying the microwave frequency (the so-called frequency tuning effect – FTE). The theoretical explanation of these results is based on the difference in the electromagnetic field pattern over the resonance surface, i.e. that region where the electrons resonantly interact with the incoming wave. In order to be consistent with the experiments, this model requires that standing waves are formed also in presence of a dense plasma. The proof was sought by means of a series of measurements performed with a network analyzer and with a plasma reactor operating at 2.45 GHz, according to the principles of the microwave discharge ion sources (MDIS). The measurements have been carried out with the aim to achieve the electromagnetic characterization of the plasma chamber in terms of possible excited resonant modes with and without plasma, and they reported that resonant modes are excited inside the cavity even in presence of a dense plasma. It was observed that the plasma dynamics strongly depends on the structure of the standing waves that are generated. The measurement of the eigen-frequencies' shifts were carried out for several values of pressure and RF power, thus linking the shift with the plasma density measured by a Langmuir probe. The changes in plasma shape, density and electron temperature have been also monitored for different operating conditions. A strong variation of plasma properties has been observed as a consequence of the introduction of the Langmuir probe inside the resonant cavity, thus demonstrating that the standing wave can be strongly perturbed even by means of relatively small metallic electrodes. The measurements reported hereinafter are relevant also for ECRIS, because they confirm the validity of the theoretical model that describes the frequency tuning.     

Understanding hydrogen plasma processes based on the diagnostic results of 2.45 GHz ECRIS at Peking University

Optical emission spectroscopy(OES), as a simple in situ method without disturbing the plasma, has been performed for the plasma diagnosis of a 2.45 GHz permanent magnet electron cyclotron resonance(PMECR) ion source at Peking University(PKU). A spectrum measurement platform has been set up with the quartz-chamber electron cyclotron resonance(ECR) ion source [Patent Number: ZL 201110026605.4] and experiments were carried out recently. The electron temperature and electron density inside the ECR plasma chamber have been measured with the method of line intensity ratio of noble gas. Hydrogen plasma processes inside the discharge chamber are discussed based on the diagnostic results. What is more, the superiority of the method of line intensity ratio of noble gas is indicated with a comparison to line intensity ratio of hydrogen. Details will be presented in this paper.     

Specific boundary conditions for the simulation of extraction for ECRIS,LIS, and H−-sources

The necessity of a three-dimensional simulation of the extraction has been accepted for electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRIS) as well as for negative ion sources. For an ECRIS, the magnetic hexapole together with the solenoidal mirror field defines a minimum B structure which confines the plasma. Depending on the magnetic flux density distribution, the plasma density in front of the extraction electrode might be non-homogeneous. In H^?-sources, magnetic filter fields are used to separate electrons with different energies or to separate electrons from negative ions. These magnetic filters influence the ions as well. Besides these asymmetry effects other quantities have to be considered, namely the correct formulation of initial conditions of all present charged particles. For ECRIS the initial conditions for ions are assumed to be in the electronvolt range, whereas it can be in the kilo electronvolt range for laser ion sources. Another quantity of interest is the electron energy and the distribution of electrons in real space and their movability if magnetic fields are present.     

The Hydrogen Dissociator

A performance analysis is presented for the hydrogen dissociator used in hydrogen masers to provide a beam of atomic hydrogen. An analysis of the discharge characteristics yields relations for electron temperature as a function of vessel size and gas pressure and for plasma density as a function of power input. Also a relation between ion impact energy at the wall and electron temperature is derived. For a typical dissociator (2" diameter, 0.1 Torr hydrogen pressure, and 4 watt input power) these relationships yield an electron temperature of 39,000°K, a plasma density of 1011 cm-3 and an ion impact energy of 20 volts. The dissociation rate is calculated using published cross-sections. Assuming a recombination rate of 4 × 10-3, the analysis yields an atomic hydrogen density of about 1014 cm-3, a degree of dissociation of 2%, and an atomic beam flux of 1.3 × 1018 cm-2 × sec-1 for the example quoted. This beam flux is in good agreement with estimated values for hydrogen masers. A coefficient for performance ? is derived for the hydrogen dissociator, defined as the ratio of atomic beam flux to discharge power consumption. It is shown that ? is a function of the electron temperature and has a maximum at 87,000°K. It is concluded from this analysis that the discharge in presently used hydrogen dissociators is well optimized given the pressure constraints of the system.