Production of molecular ion beams using an electron cyclotron resonance ion source

An all-permanent magnet electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source is tuned to create a variety of intense molecular ion beams for basic research. Based on simultaneous injection of several gases with spectroscopic high purity or enriched isotope content (e.g., H2, D2, N2, O2 or CO) and low power microwave heating, the ECR ion source produces diatomic molecular ion beams of H2+, D2+, HD+, HO+, DO+, NH+, ND+ and more complex polyatomic molecular ions such as H3+, D3+, HD2+, H2O+, D2O+, H3O+, D3O+, and NHn+, NDn+ with n=2,3,4 and possibly higher. Molecular ion beams have been produced with very high current intensities compared to other molecular beam sources. The recorded molecular ion beam spectra are discussed.