Demonstration of High-Efficiency Microwave Heating Producing Record Highly Charged Xenon Ion Beams with Superconducting ECR Ion Sources

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel microwave launching system for superconducting ECR ion sources, significantly improving highly charged xenon ion beam currents and advancing heavy ion accelerator capabilities.

Contribution

A new microwave launching approach for ECR ion sources that doubles ion beam currents and offers deeper insights into microwave-plasma interactions.

Findings

Record high xenon ion beam currents achieved.

Microwave power effectiveness increased by a factor of 4.

Enhanced performance potential for heavy ion accelerators.

Abstract

Intense highly charged ion beam production is essential for high-power heavy ion accelerators. A novel movable Vlasov launcher for superconducting high charge state Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source has been devised that can affect the microwave power effectiveness by a factor of about 4 in terms of highly charged ion beam production. This approach based on a dedicated microwave launching system instead of the traditional coupling scheme has led to new insight on microwave-plasma interaction. With this new understanding, the world record highly charged xenon ion beam currents have been enhanced by up to a factor of 2, which could directly and significantly enhance the performance of heavy ion accelerators and provide many new research opportunities in nuclear physics, atomic physics and other disciplines.