Design of an advanced plasma chamber for third generation ECRIS

Abstract

Current high performing electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRISs), such as versatile ECR for nuclear science, are limited in the generation of higher beam intensities and higher charge states by the design of the plasma chamber and its cooling capacity. Because of the potential to damage a chamber by losses of energetic electrons from the plasma, an ECRIS must be tuned sub-optimally to prevent the creation of very energetic electrons. As such, the plasma chamber acts as a key limiting factor to the production capabilities of an ECRIS. The effects of parameters such as the location of the "hotspot" in relation to the water-cooling channels, the material of the walls, and the convective factor are analyzed to assess their impact on the thermal performance of the ECRIS plasma chamber.