Atomic beam source for ion diode diagnostics

The quality of beams generated with high power electron and ion diodes sensitively depends on processes in the diode acceleration gap. Although passive spectroscopy allows us to study many of the details of light-ion diodes, ions suitable for spectroscopy are often not present in sufficient quantities inside the gap. Active spectroscopy based on local laser resonance excitation of an atomic beam injected into the diode has already been successfully applied in electron diodes and may also be used as a diagnostic tool in ion diodes. To study an ion diode, we suggest injecting a Li atomic probe beam as a diagnostic, using active Stark spectroscopy.