Anharmonic oscillation of ions trapped in a rf trap with light buffer gas

The effect of a light buffer gas on the anharmonic oscillation of ions trapped in a rf trap is studied. The rf resonance absorption signals showed a change of the signal height and the hysteresis with the sweep direction of the dc voltage or the probing frequency due to the anharmonicity of the pseudopotential well of a rf trap. It was found that the signals changed drastically or even disappeared depending on the pressure of buffer gas, although almost the same number of ions were trapped. These effects indicate that the sensitivity of detection of the trapped ions can be improved by appropriately choosing the pressure of the buffer gas and the sweep direction. The trapped ions could be detected until 76 h 20 min and the storage time of 1.3×10⁵ s was determined when these parameters were optimized.     

High sputtering yields of organic compounds by large gas cluster ions

We measured the sputtering yield, surface roughness and surface damage of thin leucine films bombarded with Ar cluster ions and examined the usefulness of large gas cluster ions for the depth profiling of organic compounds. Ar cluster ion beams with a mean size of 2000 atoms/cluster and energies from 5 to 30 keV were used. Sputtering yields increased linearly with incident ion energy and were extremely high compared to inorganic materials. Surface damage was investigated by measuring positive secondary ions emitted from the leucine film before and after cluster ion irradiation. After irradiation the leucine surface became smoother. The yield ratio of protonated leucine ions to other fragment ions kept constant before and after Ar cluster ion irradiation. These results indicate that large gas cluster ions are useful for depth profiling of organic compounds.     

Eine Methode zur Erzeugung von Strahlen negativer Ionen

A new method for the production of beams of negative ions to be injected into a tandem Van de Graaff accelerator is presented. Negative ions of a desired species are produced by impact of noble gas ions with molecules of a gas containing this element, and are then collected and bent into a beam with high efficiency. For example, a beam of negative fluorine ions has been obtained by bombardment of boron fluoride with 30 keV krypton ions, resulting in a current of 0·5 μA of F⁺⁺⁺⁺ at the target. The original ion source of the tandem has been used with this modified procedure. The krypton gas has been fed into the duoplasmatron and the boron fluoride into the charge exchange channel. No damage to the ion source system has been observed, even in this case. This method has also been applied to nitrogen and oxygen with good results. Some measurements are reported, and a brief discussion of the basic process of the method is given.     

Die Emission zusammengesetzter negativer Sekundärionen aus kontinuierlich regenerierten Targetoberflächen

In Ref. a method was described by use of secondary ion emission to generate wellcollimated and intense beams of heavy negative ions. In this paper the processes are studied that govern the emission of molecular ions from continuously regenerated surfaces. A rotating iron target was bombarded by noble gas ions in the energy range from 17 to 30 keV. The secondary ion yield was measured as a function of primary current density, mass and energy of the primary ions, gas pressure and the rotation frequency of the target.     

First Tests of a Linear Radiofrequency Quadrupole for the Cooling and Bunching of Radioactive Light Ions

A linear radiofrequency quadrupole has been built at the LPC-Caen for the manipulation of radioactive ions. The system was designed for the cooling and bunching of a continuous beam using the buffer gas cooling technique. The technique is being extended to its ultimate limit to apply it for the cooling of light ions using H₂ as buffer gas. The bunches are to be injected into a transparent Paul trap for further decay studies. The cooling and bunching section of the system has been successfully tested off-line with a source of stable ions. We describe here the specifications of the device and present the results of the first tests.

     

Cyclotron ion guide for energetic radioactive nuclear ions

A new ion guide, with an additional function having an infinite gas thickness by using a strong magnetic field, is proposed, which enables us to stop energetic radioactive nuclear ions in He gas. The stopped singly charged ions, guided in a dc field with a focusing force generated by an rf field in the gas, are extracted with a SPIG (sextupole rf ion guide) of a focusing device for a spectroscopic study of radioactive nuclei. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Beam purification techniques for low energy rare isotope beams from a gas cell

A linear gas stopping cell has been implemented at the NSCL as part of the Low Energy Beam and Ion Trap (LEBIT) facility. The gas stopping cell is used to convert relativistic ions into low energy ions suitable for use in ion trap experiments. A common undesired property of such systems is the production of beam contaminants through charge exchange of gas impurities with the He⁺ ions produced in the stopping process. These contaminants are of particular concern for Penning trap mass spectrometry, where the simultaneous trapping of ions with different masses can cause unwanted shifts in the measured cyclotron frequency of the desired ions. In order to minimize such effects, a multi-stage beam purification system has been implemented at LEBIT.     

Ion debris mitigation from tin plasma using ambient gas,magnetic field and combined effects

Mitigation of energetic ions from laser produced tin plasma is one of the principal issues in the development of an extreme ultraviolet lithographic light source. We explored the possibility of using an ambient gas and/or a magnetic field for controlling the energetic ions from tin plasma. Hydrogen, helium and argon gases provide good transmission to 13.5 nm and are found to be an effective stopper for tin ions. Absorption of in-band radiation limits the density of gas below levels needed to completely protect optics. Tin ion ranges in buffer gases were estimated using the Monte Carlo simulation code SRIM and compared with experimental results. The presence of a moderate transverse magnetic field of 0.64 T slowed the propagation of fast moving tin ions but failed to stop them. The synergistic effect of a combination of magnetic field and an ambient gas is found to be very promising for mitigating tin ions without exceeding EUV gas absorption limits. PACS 42.72.Bj; 52.50.Jm; 52.55.Jd; 52.70.kz     

Field ion microscopy of W and PtTi at about 1000°C

Bright new images including the image of atoms have been observed when a positive high voltage (～ 15 kV) was applied to a specimen heated to ～ 1000°C in a field ion microscope. A channel plate multiplier was especially effective to this effect. Since those images were observed even in a high vacuum of 10^?7 Torr, where imaging gas hardly exists, and the brightness of the images does not depend on the residual gas pressure, they can not be the usual images caused by gas ions emitted from the tip of the specimen. A tentative interpretation is that they are caused by metal gas ions which are vaporized from the heating loop of tungsten and ionized at the tip of the specimen.     

Ion current density profiles in negative corona gaps versus EHD confinements

This paper deals with the electric and hydrodynamic confinement of negative ions in a point-to-plane corona discharge gap. Radial ion current density profiles have been measured on the earthed planar electrode, drilled in the axis of the point. The experimental setup is first validated by comparison with the Warburg's law without injected gas flow rate. The gas injected in the gap and blown from the discharge gap through the hole located at the centre of the plane affects neither the electric field close to the point nor the subsequent electric wind. However, it leads to the confinement of ions flux towards the central symmetry axis in the low electric field region up to a critical gas velocity, which for no more effect is measurable. Hence, electro hydro-dynamics confinement of ions can be achieved by limiting the outward radial expansion of ions to increase ion current densities on specific locations close to the low field planar electrode.     

Measurement of storage time, estimation of ion number and study of absorption line profile in a Paul trap

Europium (Eu⁺) ions were confined in a Paul trap and detected by non-destructive method. Storage time of Eu⁺ ions achieved in vacuum was improved by orders of magnitude employing buffer gas cooling. The experimentally detected signal was fitted to the ion response signal and the total number of ions trapped was estimated. It is found that the peak signal amplitude as well as the product of FWHM and the peak signal amplitude is proportional to the total number of trapped ions. The trapped ion secular frequency was swept at different rates and its effect on the absorption line profile was studied both experimentally and theoretically.     

Temporal evolution of laser-ablated Co ions probed by time-of-flight mass spectrometry

A pulsed-field time-of-flight mass spectrometric (TOFMS) technique was used to investigate the expansion dynamics of the ionic species ejected from the visible (λ=532 nm) laser ablation of cobalt target at low laser fluence less than 1 J/cm². The temporal evolution of Co⁺ ions was studied by varying the delay time of the ion repelling pulse with respect to the laser irradiation, which provides significant information on the ablated plume characterization. The obtained TOF mass spectra were well fitted by shifted Maxwell–Boltzmann distributions on a stream velocity, commonly used to describe the measured velocity distributions. The TOF distribution of Co⁺ ions showed a bimodal distribution with fast and slow velocities. These velocities show a decreasing tendency with delay time, which is attributed to the gas collisions between the plume ejecta and to the related gas dynamics. The present results suggest that the in situ measurements of the most probable velocity of ablated ions along the normal to the solid target can be accomplished by the simple technique of a laser ablation/TOFMS.     

On the ion drift in gas mixtures

The features of the velocity distribution function of ions during their drift in a mixture of different gases are analyzed. Examples of drift of heavy ions in light gas, a mixture of two gases with equal concentrations, and drift of light ions in heavy gas are considered. It was shown that the transition to discharge in mixtures of different gases allows the formation of an ion flux with characteristics unattainable for discharge in single-component gas under typical conditions under which experiments with dust structures in plasma are performed.     

飞行时间质谱仪中激光解离的Ni^＋与醇类化合物分子束流气 …

将分子束流,激光解离和飞行时间质谱结合起来,在一个石英反应室内,让激光解离的Ｎｉ＾２＋与连续喷入的醇分子不流发生反应,产物经飞行时间质谱仪检测,研究了Ｎｉ＾＋一Ｃ２～Ｃ６等五种醇分子的气相反应。用如下的插入机理解释反应：（１）选择性的插入醇分子共价键;（２）β－Ｈ迁移至Ｎｉ＾＋;（３）失去一中性分子形成产物离子。     

Influence of an acetylene impurity on the properties of a radio-frequency gas discharge in argon

The influence of an acetylene fraction in a mixture with argon on the parameters of a radio-frequency gas discharge has been investigated using the kinetic simulation by the particle-in-cell Monte Carlo collision method. Special attention has been focused on analyzing the formation of ions and radicals that are precursors for growth of nanoparticles in the gas discharge volume. It has been shown that the concentrations of electrons, positive ions, and negative ions are nonmonotonic functions of the acetylene amount in the mixture. The presence of negative ions with a concentration comparable to the electron concentration changes the parameters of the radio-frequency gas discharge only insignificantly.     

Extraction of thermalized projectile fragments from gas

The NSCL gas cell and quadrupole ion-guide system has been used to study the thermalization of fast nuclear reaction products in a buffer gas. The fraction of radioactive ions that can be extracted from the gas cell is dramatically suppressed by space charge created by the stopping ions. The results of a review of the ion yields from the NSCL and from other gas cells from the literature with different sizes and different incident particle energies shows an overall consistency with a dramatic decline in extraction efficiency at high ionization rates.     

囚禁N2+离子的冷却实验

在Paul 阱中,开展了N2+离子电阻冷却和缓冲气体冷却实验。用抛出检测法精确测量离子信号的变化,提高了测量电阻冷却效果的灵敏度;用改变囚禁势的方法,测出了冷却离子的温度,观察到冷却离子的囚禁时间增加和速度分布范围减小的现象。     

Space charge effects on stopped projectile fragment drift in gas

The results from a particle-in-cell code developed to describe the drifting of ions in an ionized buffer gas are described. The rate of ionization was found to have a dramatic effect on the collection efficiency of the heavy ions and results of the calculations agree well with recent observations.      

Effect of bombardment with iron ions on the evolution of helium,hydrogen, and deuterium blisters in silicon

The effect of bombardment with iron ions on the evolution of gas porosity in silicon single crystals has been studied. Gas porosity has been produced by implantation hydrogen, deuterium, and helium ions with energies of 17, 12.5, and 20 keV, respectively, in identical doses of 1 × 10¹⁷ cm^–2 at room temperature. For such energy of bombarding ions, the ion doping profiles have been formed at the same distance from the irradiated surface of the sample. Then, the samples have been bombarded with iron Fe¹⁰⁺ ions with energy of 150 keV in a dose of 5.9 × 10¹⁴ cm^–2. Then 30-min isochoric annealing has been carried out with an interval of 50°C in the temperature range of 250–900°C. The samples have been analyzed using optical and electron microscopes. An extremely strong synergetic effect of sequential bombardment of silicon single crystals with gas ions and iron ions at room temperature on the nucleation and growth of gas porosity during postradiation annealing has been observed. For example, it has been shown that the amorphous layer formed in silicon by additional bombardment with iron ions stimulates the evolution of helium blisters, slightly retards the evolution of hydrogen blisters, and completely suppresses the evolution of deuterium blisters. The results of experiments do not provide an adequate explanation of the reason for this difference; additional targeted experiments are required.     

Observation of diffusion through ion irradiated Makrofol KG

The features of the latent track in polycarbonate can be analysed by measuring the diffusion constant under ultra high vacuum conditions. Stacks of 30 μm Makrofol KG foils were irradiated with uranium ions of 11.4 MeV/u at the GSI Darmstadt, Germany. We used different fluences from 3·10¹⁰ to 5·10¹¹ ions/cm². The diffusion constant was determined by the time-lag-method [1]. A quadrupole mass filter was used to observe the diffusion of the gas. We measured the diffusion of argon through different foils of each stack at room temperature. In all cases also unirradiated foils were measured. The dependence of the permeability and the diffusion constant on the ion fluence and the energy loss of the ions will be given and indications on the size of latent ion tracks concerning gas diffusion will be discussed.