The REX-ISOLDE project

The Radioactive Beam Experiment REX-ISOLDE [1–3] is a pilot experiment at ISOLDE (CERN) testing the new concept of post acceleration of radioactive ion beams by using charge breeding of the ions in a high charge state ion source and the efficient acceleration of the highly charged ions in a short LINAC using modern ion accelerator structures. In order to prepare the ions for the experiments singly charged radioactive ions from the on-line mass separator ISOLDE will be cooled and bunched in a Penning trap, charge bred in an electron beam ion source (EBIS) and finally accelerated in the LINAC. The LINAC consists of a radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator, which accelerates the ions up to 0.3 MeV/u, an interdigital H-type (IH) structure with a final energy between 1.1 and 1.2 MeV/u and three seven gap resonators, which allow the variation of the final energy. With an energy of the radioactive beams between 0.8 MeV/u and 2.2 MeV/u a wide range of experiments in the field of nuclear spectroscopy, astrophysics and solid state physics will be addressed by REX-ISOLDE. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

An EBIS for charge state breeding in the SPES project

The ‘charge state breeder’, BRIC (breeding ion charge) is in construction at the INFN section of Bari (Italy). It is based on EBIS scheme and it is designed to accept radioactive ion beam (RIB) with charge state +1 in a slow injection mode. This experiment can be considered as a first step towards the design and construction of a charge breeder for the SPES project. The new feature of BRIC, with respect to the classical EBIS, is given by the insertion, in the ion chamber, of a rf-quadrupole aiming at filtering the unwanted masses and then making a more efficient containment of the wanted ions. In this paper, the breeder design, the simulation results of the electron and ion beam propagation and the construction problems of the device will be reported.     

聚焦慢速高荷态重离子束微束斑X射线源

利用电子束离子源(EBIS)或者电子束离子陷阱(EBIT)产生的慢速高电荷态重离子束轰击金属靶面,离子束与靶面作用并复合辐射特征X射线;并将高荷态离子束采用离子光学系统会聚为微细束后再与靶面作用,能够辐射出微米甚至亚微米级、纳米级的微束斑X射线.本文介绍这一新型微束斑X射线源的结构、机理及其特性等.     

Analysis of experiments on energetic ions from laser produced plasmas with reference to hot electrons and pulsation

The need for highly charged heavy ions from projected particle accelerators has recently led to a re-evaluation of the complex processes of ion production in laser generated plasmas. Possible mechanisms for the production of intense beams of high charge state ions are investigated as is the experimental evidence for these mechanisms. The hypothesis that 20 keV ions are driven by hot electrons is not supported by experimental work to date. This work, on the other hand, suggests that 30ps pulsation is the basic mechanism for the acceleration of tantalum ions up to charge state 8+ whose energy increases linearly with charge state up to 24keV. For long pulses and charge states between 8+ and 18+, it appears that there is a secondary mechanism of electron impact ionisation by plasma electrons of approximately 200 eV in the plasma in front of the target, resulting in ions whose energy of around 24 keV is independent of charge state.     

线型离子阱中空间电荷效应的理论分析

线型离子阱中的离子在射频场作用下做宏观的久期运动,久期运动频率与实验参数有关.但当离子阱中囚禁大量同种电荷的离子时,空间电荷效应会导致离子间存在相互排斥的库仑力,使离子的运动频率发生漂移.本文通过求解泊松方程计算了空间电荷产生的附加电场的解析表达式,在小振动近似下理论计算了该附加电场对久期运动频率的影响,模拟了不同离子云中心密度下久期频率的漂移,讨论了离子云的数目、温度与实验参数之间的关系.对用离子阱进行的频标实验、碰撞实验和其他方面的研究都具有重要的指导意义.     

The charge exchange of slow highly charged ions at surfaces unraveled with freestanding 2D materials

The property of a variable charge state makes ions unique to other types of radiation a material surface can be exposed to. As a consequence of charge exchange between ions and surfaces, energy is transferred to the surface and material damage may be triggered. Furthermore, a changing charge state of the ion alters its slowing down process in solids and has important implications when back-scattered ions are to be measured for material analysis purposes. Over the last decades extensive research was devoted to the understanding of ion charge exchange with solids. Here I review recent progress in this field with special emphasize on slow ions in high charge states. This class of ions allows a detailed analysis of charge exchange in experiments, which employ also ultra-thin solid targets and therefore give experimental access to electronic processes on the femtosecond timescale. In this review I will discuss general properties of charge exchange and present typical experimental techniques. I will also discuss current developments in the modelling and simulation of ion-surface interaction. Recent findings using freestanding 2D materials are discussed as well as results from spectroscopy of emitted secondary particles. The paper concludes with a unified picture of ion charge exchange at surfaces and presents possible applications based on the understanding of the underlying physics.     

Neutralization of multiply charged ions at a surface

We report on emission processes induced by particle-solid interaction involving ions with a large potential (i.e., high ion charge state) and low kinetic energy. After an introduction into existing neutralization models for ion scattering at a metal surface a detailed discussion on the electron emission processes is presented.The number of electrons emitted per incident ion is shown to be proportional to the potential energy only within a restricted parameter field involving charge state and ion velocity. The kinetic energy distribution of emitted electrons is dominated by low-energetic electrons (30 eV), while inner shell holes of the projectile ion can initiate high-energetic characteristic Auger electrons. The presence of inner shell holes is also of importance for the charge state of highly charged ions being scattered at surfaces whereas normally the charge state distribution of scattered ions depends on the impact parameter only.The influence of the primary ion charge state on the sputtering yield of insulating surfaces is seen for the charge state of sputtered particles, whereas the total sputtering yield seems to be insensitive. This question is still subject to controversy, however.Photon emission dependent on the charge state of the impinging ion has been observed up to now only for extremely highly charged ions as hydrogenlike Ar or Kr.     

Testing atomic structure theories with high accuracy mass measurements on highly charged ions

The mass of a highly charged ion is the sum of the mass of the nucleus, the mass of the electrons and the electronic binding energies. High accuracy mass measurements on highly charged ions in a sequence of different charge states yield informations on atomic binding energies, i.e., the ionisation potentials. In our contribution we discuss the possibility of determining atomic binding energies of highly charged ions to better than 20 eV via cyclotron frequency measurements in a Penning trap. At this level of accuracy different contributions to the binding energies, like relativistic corrections, Breit corrections and QED corrections, can be measured. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Spatial and angular distribution of the heavy ion charge under channeling in crystals

A kinetic theory of passage of multiply charged heavy ions through crystals is developed that allows for diffusion in the transverse momentum space and ion-crystal charge exchange. The theory provides an adequate explanation for the observed angular distributions of heavy ions passing through oriented crystals, makes it possible to calculate the partial angular distributions of different charge states, and treats the discovered effects of “cooling” and “heating” of channeled ion beams in physical terms. The angular and spatial distribution of channeled ions with different energies is calculated. Whether a channeled beam of multiply charged heavy ions will be cooled or heated is related to the dependence of the electron capture and loss probabilities on the impact parameter when the ions interact with atomic chains. This interaction governs the run of the angular and spatial distribution of the channeled ion charge.     

High yields from the Stockholm electron beam ion source CRYSIS

CRYSIS is an electron beam ion source (EBIS) with a superconducting solenoid. Highly charged ions are delivered to the acceleration and storage ring CRYRING [ K. Abrahamsson et al., Nucl. Instr. Methods B 79 (1993) 269.], SMILETRAP [C. Carlberg et al., Phys. Scr. T 59 (1995) 196.] and to low energy atomic and surface physics experiments. Stable electron beam currents up to 700 mA are obtained, in order to enhance the ion yield out of the EBIS. Measurements of the total charge per pulse at different working conditions and electron beam current density measurements were done. At electron beam currents of 600 mA yields up to 2.5 × 10¹⁰ charges per pulse could be measured. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

中能Ne~(4+)离子诱导的羰基硫分子三体碎裂动力学分析

利用反应显微成像谱仪开展了56 keV/u的Ne~(4+)离子与羰基硫(OCS)气体的交叉碰撞实验,研究了Ne~(4+)离子诱导的OCS~(3+)的碎裂动力学.通过符合探测三个末态离子,重构了OCS~(3+)离子三体碎裂对应的牛顿图和Dalitz图,并明确区分了直接解离和次序解离两种碎裂过程.重构了OCS~(3+)离子解离过程的动能释放(KER)分布,发现其峰值在25 eV处,同时在18 eV处有肩膀结构的存在,其中25 eV左右的峰来源于直接解离过程,18 eV处的肩膀结构来源于次序解离和非次序解离两种过程.通过分析不同能量和不同电荷态下重离子碰撞实验所得到的KER谱,发现微扰强度不是影响态布居的主要因素.OCS~(3+)次序解离中的第二步KER的峰值在6.2 eV处.结合以往的实验结果,我们得出结论:多电离态的分子发生次序碎裂的根源在于二价离子碎片存在亚稳态,而重构得到的第二步KER可以反映亚稳态离子的电子态信息.     

The TITAN mass measurement facility at TRIUMF-ISAC

The TITAN facility at TRIUMF-ISAC will use four ion traps with the primary goal of determining nuclear masses with high precision, particularly for short lived isotopes with lifetimes down to approximately 10 ms. The design value for the accuracy of the mass measurement is 1 ×10^???8. The four main components in the facility are an RF cooler/buncher (RFCT) receiving the incoming ion beam, an electron beam ion trap (EBIT) to breed the ions to higher charge states, a cooler Penning trap (CPET) to cool the highly charged ions, and finally the measurement Penning trap (MPET) for the precision mass determination. Additional goals for this system are laser spectroscopy on ions extracted from the RFCT and beta spectroscopy in the EBIT (in Penning trap mode) on ions that are purified using selective buffer gas cooling in the CPET. The physics motivation for the mass measurements are manifold, from unitarity tests of the CKM matrix to nuclear structure very far from the valley of stability, nuclear astrophysics and the study of halo-nuclei. As a first measurement the mass of ¹¹Li will be determined. With a lifetime of 8.7 ms and a demonstrated production rate of 4×10⁴ ions/sec at ISAC the goal for this measurement at TITAN is a relative uncertainty of 5×10^???8. This would check previous conflicting measurements and provide information for nuclear theory and models.     

多电荷态气脉冲式ECR离子源(摘要)

A new type of pulse sources of multicharged ions,namely,a quasi-gasdynamic ECR source is propose.Its main difference from the classical ECR ion sources is a different,quasi-gasdynamic regime of plasma confinement in a magnetic trap.A zero-dimensional model was constructed that describes gas breakdown, formation of charge state distribution in a plasma,and plasma flux through the plugs of the trap.A wide spectrum of model experimental studies was covered.Plasma was produced and heated by a pulse(1ms) gyrotron at the frequency of 37.5GHz and power of 100kW in a cusp magnetic trap with magnetic field in plugs up to 2.5T.Such a trap has axisymmetric configuration and allows one to realize a quasi-gasdynamic regime of confinement with reliable stabilization of MHD perturbations.It was demonstrated that with such a confinement regime it is possible to generate multicharged ions and create intense(more than 1A/cm~2)ion fluxes through the trap plugs.Comparison of results of calculations and data of experiments shows that they are in a good agreement,which allows us to predict with a high degree of certainty creation of an ECR source of a new generation. The data obtained were used to design a pulse quasi-gasdynamic ECR ion source with pumping at the frequency of 100GHz,effective trap size lm,average ion charge in plasma comparable with that in the best classical MCI ECR sources but with an order of magnitude higher flux density and absolute magnitude of plasma flux through trap plugs.Creation of intense plasma fluxes allows one to extract high-current MCI beams of high brightness.Transverse homogeneity of a plasma flux makes it possible to use multi-aperture extraction system for formation on broad intense MCI beams.     

A high-current electron beam ion trap as an on-line charge breeder for the high precision mass measurement TITAN experiment

The precision of atomic mass measurements in a Penning trap is directly proportional to the charge state q of the ion and, hence, can be increased by using highly charged ions (HCI). For this reason, charge breeding with an electron beam ion trap (EBIT) is employed at TRIUMF’s Ion Trap for Atomic and Nuclear science (TITAN) on-line facility in Vancouver, Canada. By bombarding the injected and trapped singly charged ions with an intense beam of electrons, the charge state of the ions is rapidly increased inside the EBIT. To be compatible with the on-line requirements of short-lived isotopes, very high electron beam current densities are needed. The TITAN EBIT includes a 6 Tesla superconducting magnet and is designed to have electron beam currents and energies of up to 5 A and 60 keV, respectively. Once operational at full capacity, most species can be bred into a He-like configuration within tens of ms. Subsequently, the HCI are extracted, pass a Wien filter to reduce isobaric contamination, are cooled, and injected into a precision Penning trap for mass measurement. We will present the first results and current status of the TITAN EBIT, which has recently been moved to TRIUMF after assembly and commissioning at the Max-Planck-Institute (MPI) for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany.     

Probing charge carrier compensation in high energy ion irradiated III–V semiconductor by Raman spectroscopy and Hall measurements

Raman spectroscopy and Hall measurements have been carried out to investigate the differences in near‐surface charge carrier modulation in high energy (~100 MeV) silicon ion (Si⁸⁺) and oxygen ion (O⁷⁺) irradiated n‐GaAs. In the case of O ion irradiation, the observed decrease in carrier concentration with increase in ion fluence could be explained in the view of charge compensation by possible point defect trap centers, which can form because of elastic collisions of high energy ions with the target nuclei. In Si irradiated n‐GaAs one would expect the carrier compensation to occur at a fluence of 2.5 × 10¹³ ions/cm², if the same mechanism of acceptor state formation, as in case of O irradiation, is considered. However, we observe the charge compensation in this system at a fluence of 5 × 10¹² ions/cm². We discuss the role of the complex defect states, which are formed because of the interaction of the primary point defects, in determining carrier concentration in a Si irradiated n‐GaAs wafer. The above results are combined with the reported data from the literature for high energy silver ion irradiated n‐GaAs, in order to illustrate the effect of both electronic and nuclear energy loss on trap creation and charge compensation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determination of the charge state distribution of a highly ionized coronal Au plasma

We present the first definitive measurement of the charge state distribution of a highly ionized gold plasma in coronal equilibrium. The experiment utilized the Livermore electron beam ion trap EBIT-II in a novel configuration to create a plasma with a Maxwellian temperature of 2.5 keV. The charge balance in the plasma was inferred from spectral line emission measurements which accounted for charge exchange effects. The measured average ionization state was 46.8+/-0.75. This differs from the predictions of two modeling codes by up to four charge states.     

First use of high charge states for mass measurements of short-lived nuclides in a Penning trap

Penning trap mass measurements of short-lived nuclides have been performed for the first time with highly charged ions, using the TITAN facility at TRIUMF. Compared to singly charged ions, this provides an improvement in experimental precision that scales with the charge state q. Neutron-deficient Rb isotopes have been charge bred in an electron beam ion trap to q=8-12+ prior to injection into the Penning trap. In combination with the Ramsey excitation scheme, this unique setup creating low energy, highly charged ions at a radioactive beam facility opens the door to unrivaled precision with gains of 1-2 orders of magnitude. The method is particularly suited for short-lived nuclides such as the superallowed β emitter 74Rb (T(1/2)=65 ms). The determination of its atomic mass and an improved Q(EC) value are presented.     

Using GPU parallelization to perform realistic simulations of the LPCTrap experiments

We performed classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in order to search the conditions for efficient sympathetic cooling of highly charged ions (HCIs) in a linear Paul trap. Small two-component ion Coulomb crystals consisting of laser-cooled ions and HCIs were characterized by the results of the MD simulations. We found that the spatial distribution is determined by not only the charge-to-mass ratio but also the space charge effect. Moreover, the simulation results suggest that the temperature of HCIs do not necessarily decrease with increasing the number of laser-cooled ions in the cases of linear ion crystals. We also determined the cooling limit of sympathetically cooled ¹⁶⁵Ho¹⁴⁺ ions in small linear ion Coulomb crystals. The present results show that sub-milli-Kelvin temperatures of at least 10 Ho¹⁴⁺ ions will be achieved by sympathetic cooling with a single laser-cooled Be⁺.     

Magnetic moments of mirror nuclei with tilted-foil polarization

We report here on an ongoing experimental program initiated at the ISOLDE facility at CERN for the measurement of magnetic moments of short-lived radionuclides, with the emphasis on magnetic moments of mirror nuclei in far-from-stability regions. The nuclei are polarized by the tilted foil technique and the resulting 0–180^○ βasymmetry is monitored as a function of rf frequency applied in an NMR setup. In order to achieve sufficiently high energy for transmission through the foils, the experimental setup is mounted on a high voltage platform. The first experiment in this program was the measurement of the βasymmetry and the NMR resonance for the ground state of ²³Mg (I=3/2, T_1/2=11.3 s), yielding μ=−0.533(6) nm. Improvements to the experimental setup are presently being designed, to be used in conjunction with the new developments at ISOLDE for obtaining high charge-state ions from the EBIS (REX-ISOLDE) ion source. This will help pave the way for measurements of magnetic moments of T=3/2 nuclei in the s–d shell and of T=1/2 f-shell nuclei. The study of relaxation times and other solid-state phenomena in semiconductors and other materials of interest using this technique is also contemplated. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Tungsten ions produced by infrared pulsed laser irradiation

Energetic ions have been obtained irradiating a tungsten target with a Q-switched Nd:Yag laser, 1064?nm wavelength, 9?ns pulse width, 900?mJ maximum pulse energy and power density of the order of 10¹⁰?W/cm². The laser-target interaction induces a strong metal etching with production of plasma in front of the target. The plasma contains neutrals and ions with high charge state. Time-of-flight measurements are presented for qualitative analysis of the ion production. A cylindrical electrostatic ion analyzer permits measuring of the yield of emitted ions, the charge state of detected ions and the ion energy distribution. Measurements indicate that, at a laser fluence of the order of 100?J/cm², the charge state may reach 9+ and the ion energy reaches about 5?keV. The ion energy distribution is given as a function of the charge state. Experimental results indicate that an electrical field is developed along the normal to the plane of the target surface, which accelerates the ions up to high velocity. The ion velocity distributions follow a “shifted Maxwellian distribution”, which the author has corrected for the Coulomb interactions occurring inside the plasma.