Effects of gas pressure and discharge current on beam composition in a magnetron discharge ion source.

The magnetron discharge plasma is commonly used in thin film deposition processes, but it can also be utilized for ion beam production. We have developed and investigated an ion source based on planar magnetron discharge. We show that under certain conditions, the discharge, running in a high current pulsed mode, effectively produces plasmas with a high fraction of ions formed from the magnetron target material.

Low-energy dc ion source for low operating pressure.

We report on an experimental study of an ion source based on a Penning discharge with a cold hollow cathode in crossed electric and magnetic fields. The minimum vacuum chamber operating pressure was 3 × 10(-5) Torr for argon and 5 × 10(-5) Torr for hydrogen. The use of a hollow cathode allowed decreasing the discharge operating voltage down to 350 V at a discharge current of ~100 mA.

Boron ion beam generation using a self-sputtering planar magnetron.

A boron ion source based on planar magnetron discharge with solid boron target has been developed. To obtain a sufficient conductivity of the boron target for high current discharge ignition, the target was heated to the temperature more than 350 °C. To reach this temperature, thermally isolated target was heated by low-current high-voltage magnetron DC discharge.