Production of Doubly Charged Helium Ions

Abstract

A 0.6 μa beam of He++ ions has been produced and accelerated to 7.6 Mev in an electrostatic generator. The He++ ion source, contained in the high voltage electrode of the generator, consists of a second small 400 kv electrostatic generator driven by the upper belt pulley of the main machine. He+ ions obtained from a low voltage arc type ion source in the dome of the small generator pass through a region of low pressure gas to become doubly ionized before entering the main accelerating tube of the large generator.