PRODUCTION OF SLOW ION BEAMS FROM A LASER ION SOURCE

At the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS) we have designed a hybrid ion source, consisting of a Laser Ion Source (LIS) as first stage, which gives intense currents of electrons and of multiply charged ions (q/m=1/10 or lower), followed by an ECR ion source as a second stage, which acts as a charge state multiplier. Preliminary experiments for the ECLISSE experiment (Ecr ion source Coupled to a Laser Ion Source for charge State Enhancement) have been carried out at IPPLM in Warsaw, in order to show the beneficial effects of the magnetic axial field on the extraction of the ions from the Laser Ion Source. In addition, at LNS we have been looking for a regime of the LIS which minimizes the beam energy which is a crucial parameter for the coupling to the ECR plasma. The best results obtained up to date range between 100 and 1000 eV for Al, Ni, Ta beams with charge states up to 5. The description of the tests and the perspectives of the experiment will be reported.