Long pulse operation of a cesium-seeded multicusp H− ion source

Abstract

It is demonstrated that a cesium-seeded volume H− ion source can be operated very stably for long pulse durations of up to 24 h. The source consists of a 20 cm cylindrical multicusp plasma generator and a 9 cm × 10 cm multiaperture extractor. By seeding a small amount of cesium, the source has produced 50 keV, 0.5 A, 1000 s H− ion beams with a current density of 14 mA/cm2. The cesium effect lasted for more than 24 h once 100 mg cesium was seeded before operation. Power flow measurement revealed that the heat loading of the ion source was low enough to operate the source in the dc mode.