Multipurpose superconducting electron cyclotron resonanceion source, the European roadmap to third-generationelectron cyclotron resonance ion sources

• Published in: Review of scientific instruments 2006-02, Vol.77 (3), p.03A303-03A303-5
• Main Authors: Ciavola, G., Gammino, S., Celona, L., Torrisi, L., Passarello, S., Andó, L., Cavenago, M., Galatà, A., Spaedtke, P., Tinschert, K., Lang, R., Iannucci, R., Leroy, R., Barue, C., Hitz, D., Seyfert, P., Koivisto, H., Suominen, P., Tarvainen, O., Beijers, H., Brandenburg, S., Vanrooyen, D., Hill, C., Kuchler, D., Homeyer, H., Röhrich, J., Schachter, L., Dobrescu, S.
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 0034-6748; 1089-7623
• DOI: 10.1063/1.2149303

The major infrastructures of nuclear physics in Europe adopted the technology of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources for the production of heavy-ion beams. Most of them use 14 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRISs), except at INFN-LNS, where an 18 GHz superconducting ECRIS is in operation. In the past five years it was demonstrated, in the frame of the EU-FP5 RTD project called "Innovative ECRIS," that further enhancement of the performances requires a higher frequency ( 28 GHz and above) and a higher magnetic field (above 2.2 T ) for the hexapolar field. Within the EU-FP6 a joint research activity named ISIBHI has been established to build by 2008 two different ion sources, the A-PHOENIX source at LPSC Grenoble, reported in another contribution, and the multipurpose superconducting ECRIS (MS-ECRIS), based on fully superconducting magnets, able to operate in High B mode at a frequency of 28 GHz or higher. Such a development represents a significant step compared to existing devices, and an increase of typically a factor of 10 for the intensity is expected (e.g., 1 emA for medium charge states of heavy ions, or hundreds of e μ A of fully stripped light ions, or even 1 e μ A of charge states above 50 + for the heaviest species). The challenging issue is the very high level of magnetic field, never achieved by a minimum B trap magnet system; the maximum magnetic field of MS-ECRIS will be higher than 4 or 5 T for the axial field and close to 2.7 T for the hexapolar field. The detailed description of the MS-ECRIS project and of its major constraints will be given along with the general issues of the developments under way.