The preliminary test of multi-charged ions generation with a 2.45 GHz microwave-driven ion source.

A 2.45 GHz microwave-driven ion source for the generation of multicharged ions has been designed and built at Peking University recently. The magnetic field configuration of this ion source is a minimum-B type with a combination of a hexapole field and an axial mirror field. Argon was selected as the first tested beam generated by this ion source. A 63 µA Ar ion beam at 35 kV extraction voltage was obtained in the pulsed mode (50 Hz/500 µs). Without the hexapole magnetic field, the highest charge state was only Ar, and no Ar ion beam was detected. The comparison between the two sets of experimental results with different magnetic configurations has proven the rationality of the production of multicharged ions with this ion source. Both experimental results and discussion will be presented in this paper.