Production of highly charged ion beams from ECR ion sources

Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source development has progressed with multiple-frequency plasma heating, higher mirror magnetic fields and better technique to provide extra cold electrons. Such techniques greatly enhance the production of highly charged ions from ECR ion sources. So far at cw mode operation, up to 300 e{mu}A of O{sup 7+} and 1.15 emA of O{sup 6+}, more than 100 e{mu}A of intermediate heavy ions for charge states up to Ar{sup 13+}, Ca{sup 13+}, Fe{sup 13+}, Co{sup 14+} and Kr{sup 18+}, and tens of e{mu}A of heavy ions with charge states to Kr{sup 26+}, Xe{sup 28+}, Au{sup 35+}, Bi{sup 34+} and U{sup 34+} have been produced from ECR ion sources. At an intensity of at least 1 e{mu}A, the maximum charge state available for the heavy ions are Xe{sup 36+}, Au{sup 46+}, Bi{sup 47+} and U{sup 48+}. An order of magnitude enhancement for fully stripped argon ions (I {ge} 60 enA) also has been achieved. This article will review the ECR ion source progress and discuss key requirement for ECR ion sources to produce the highly charged ion beams