Emittance of compact microwave ion source for low energy application

Area of Science:

• Plasma Physics
• Ion Source Technology
• Low Energy Applications

Background:

• Compact microwave ion sources are crucial for low-energy applications.
• Previous versions of the source have established performance benchmarks.
• Optimizing ion beam quality is essential for efficient particle acceleration and manipulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the emittance characteristics of a modified compact microwave ion source.
• To evaluate the impact of structural modifications and extraction aperture size on ion beam quality.
• To compare the performance of the modified source with its original design.

Main Methods:

• A compact microwave ion source with slight structural modifications was utilized.
• Ion beam emittance was measured using different extraction apertures (3 mm and 4 mm).
• Normalized emittance was calculated to quantify beam quality.

Main Results:

• The normalized emittance ranged from 6 × 10⁻⁸ m·rad (3 mm aperture) to 2 × 10⁻⁷ m·rad (4 mm aperture).
• These emittance values are comparable to those obtained from the original ion source design.
• The study demonstrates consistent beam quality despite minor modifications.

Conclusions:

• The modified compact microwave ion source maintains comparable emittance performance to the original design.
• The choice of extraction aperture (3 mm or 4 mm) influences emittance but within expected ranges.
• The results support the continued use of this ion source for low-energy applications.