Formation of Multicharged Metal Ions in Vacuum Arc Plasma Heated by Gyrotron Radiation

A new method for the generation of high charged state metal ion beams is developed. This method is based on microwave heating of vacuum arc plasma in a magnetic trap under electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) conditions. Two gyrotrons for plasma heating were used, which were with the following parameters The first is with a wave frequency of 37.5 GHz, a pulse duration of 1 ms and power of 100 kW, another is with 75 GHz, 0.15 ms and 400 kW. Two different magnetic traps were considered for vacuum arc plasma confinement. The first one is a simple mirror trap. Such system was already investigated and could provide high charge state ions. The second trap was with a cusp magnetic field configuration with native “minimum-B” field structure. Two different ways of metal plasma injection into the magnetic trap were used. The first one is an axial injection from an arc source located out of the trap, and the second is a radial injection from four arc sources mounted at the center of the trap. Both traps provide up to 200 eмA of ion beam current for platinum ions with highest charge state 10+. Ion beams were successfully extracted from the plasma and accelerated by a voltage of up to 20 kV.