Vacuum Arc Ion Sources

TL;DR

The paper reviews the principles, design, and performance of vacuum arc ion sources, highlighting their evolution into standard tools for high-current metal ion beam production used in research and accelerators.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the development, design, and operational improvements of vacuum arc ion sources across various applications.

Findings

Enhanced operational characteristics over time

Successful high-current heavy-metal ion injection

Widespread laboratory adoption

Abstract

The vacuum arc ion source has evolved into a more or less standard laboratory tool for the production of high-current beams of metal ions, and is now used in a number of different embodiments at many laboratories around the world. Applications include primarily ion implantation for material surface modification research, and good performance has been obtained for the injection of high-current beams of heavy-metal ions, in particular uranium, into particle accelerators. As the use of the source has grown, so also have the operational characteristics been improved in a variety of different ways. Here we review the principles, design, and performance of vacuum arc ion sources.