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.