Effect of double frequency heating on the lead afterglow beam currents of an electron cyclotron resonance ion source

Abstract

The effect of double frequency heating on the performance of the CERN GTS-LHC 14.5 GHz Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source in afterglow mode is reported. The source of the secondary microwave frequency was operated both in pulsed and continuous wave (CW) modes within the range of 12–18 GHz. The results demonstrate that the addition of the secondary frequency can significantly impact the extracted beam currents and the temporal stability of the beam during the afterglow discharge. For example, up to a factor of 2.6 increase was achieved for ^{208}Pb^{35+} and a factor of 3.1 for ^{208}Pb^{37+} compared to single frequency afterglow currents. It is shown that these effects are dependent on the choice of the secondary frequency with respect to the primary one and on the temporal synchronization between the two microwave sources. Overall, the results provide new insight into the afterglow discharge supporting the prevailing understanding of the physical processes behind the phenomenon.