Investigation of an Electron Beam Ion Source for the Production of Multiply Charged Heavy Ions

An electron beam ion source for the production of multiply charged heavy ions has been developed. DC ion beams of neon, argon, krypton, and xenon ions have been produced. Xenon beam currents are in the range from some 10-9A for Xe10+ up to about 10-6A for charge states lower than Xe4+. The ion source proved to be very reliable and simple to operate. The analyzed charge spectra are compared with a theoretical model which allows for computation of the ion charge distribution in dependence on various source parameters.