Production and decay of Sulphur excited species in a ECRIS plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates the processes leading to excited sulfur ions in an ECRIS plasma, calculating cross sections and transition probabilities, and compares theoretical X-ray spectra with experimental data.

Contribution

It provides detailed theoretical calculations of excitation and ionization processes for sulfur ions in an ECRIS plasma, including double and triple ionization, and compares these with experimental spectra.

Findings

Theoretical cross sections match experimental data reasonably well.

Inner-shell excitation and ionization are key to X-ray emission.

Double KL and triple KLL ionization processes are significant.

Abstract

The most important processes for the creation of S12+ to S14+ ions excited states from the ground configurations of S9+ to S14+ ions in an electron cyclotron resonance ion source, leading to the emission of K X-ray lines, are studied. Theoretical values for inner-shell excitation and ionization cross sections, including double KL and triple KLL ionization, transition probabilities and energies for the deexcitation processes, are calculated in the framework of the multi-configuration Dirac-Fock method. With reasonable assumptions about the electron energy distribution, a theoretical K$\alpha$ X-ray spectrum is obtained, which is compared to recent experimental data.