Design of a plasma chamber for a high-density 10 kW ECR ion source

Abstract

Gasdynamic electron cyclotron resonance ion sources are known for their ability to produce huge currents of low to moderately charged ion beams with superior quality. This is achieved by means of tens of kW of microwave heating power, leading to high plasma density. Average power density in the plasma chamber may reach hundreds of W/cm$^3$, which poses very high thermal load to plasma chamber walls. A water-cooled plasma chamber has been developed for the GISMO gasdynamic ECRIS, which is able to handle 10 kW of input microwave power with average power density in the plasma of 250 W/cm$^3$. The plasma chamber was manufactured and successfully tested for 200 hours.