Design of a permanent magnet electron-cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source

A design for a permanent magnet electron cyclotron resonance (PM-ECR) ion source is presented. This PMFCR ion source was originally designed to substitute for the electromagnet ECR source in the LEDA injector system at Los Alamos National Laboratory and was designed to duplicate, as much as was practical, the parameters of that ion source as detailed in recent publications. To maximize the utility of this ion source for producing other positive ion beams, this particular design is very flexible. The plasma chamber, the beam formation aperture, and the RF feed system are field-replaceable to facilitate the specific requirements of different ion beams. The design of the permanent magnet solenoid is quite flexible as well. The baseline magnetic field profile is set during fabrication by adjusting permanent magnet strengths to optimize the field shape for a particular range of ion species. Further, the magnetic field can be adjusted on-line (within certain limits) to optimize the performance of the ion source for a particular ion species. The permanent magnet eliminates all requirements for active components at high voltage. The only connections that cross the high-voltage boundary are the RF waveguide and the source gas feed lines.