Characteristics of highly charged ions produced at Kobe EBIS under modulated operation

Abstract

The electron beam ion source (Kobe EBIS) has been developed to perform modification of surfaces using highly charged ions (HCIs) at the Kobe University, Japan. Recent study revealed that periodic intermission of electron beam improves charge state distribution of extracted ions. The period of intermission is in the order of 100 ms, and the width of beam‐off time is 1 ms or less. This operational mode (pulse mode) makes it possible to produce Ar15+ to Ar17+ effectively, whereas the charge is limited less than 14+ under the ordinary operational mode with direct current (DC) electron beam. A spike of HCIs with a peak current in the order of nA is also observed at each moment of electron beam off. The measurement of the time evolution of Ar16+ intensity around the timing of mode change revealed that the intensity of extracted Ar16+ changes slowly after mode change with a time constant of few seconds.