Experimental investigation of plasma instabilities by Fourier analysis in an electron cyclotron resonance ion source

Abstract

The plasma instabilities play an important role in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source for the production of intense heavy ion beams in high charge states for particle accelerators. The geometrical and operational constraints of ECR sources hinder the trapping of ions for a sufficient time to get fully ionized with maximum efficiency. This problem is looked at in detail by studying the plasma instabilities in ECR ion sources. The ECR environment is full of complex rearrangements of various electric and magnetic fields to define a sustainable trap for the ions. The maximum frequency of plasma instability has been observed to be of 122.5 kHz under a set of sustainable plasma parameters. However, this limit may be pushed further if the plasma is overdriven in terms of source parameters. The instabilities cover a full regime of few tens of Hz to few hundreds of kHz under various operating conditions of radio frequency (rf), negative bias voltage, rf power and injection gas pressure. The rigorous details of frequencies and amplitudes of plasma instabilities are being reported by studying the Fourier spectrum of extracted and analyzed beam intensity. The plasma instabilities are attributed as drift waves in an inhomogeneous ECR plasma generated by the application of radio-frequency fields.