Development of a compact cesium-seeded magnetically confined plasma ion source for accelerator mass spectrometry

A gas-fed negative ion source for use in an accelerator mass spectrometry system has been built at the United States Naval Research Laboratory. This ion source is a filament driven plasma ion source using a multicusp magnet arrangement for plasma confinement. Our specific design was assisted by modeling using the SIMION code to optimize beam extraction optics. In addition to the ion source modeling, preliminary characterization of the plasma behavior was performed, which showed the typical and expected order of magnitude increase in collected plasma current when a multicusp magnetic arrangement is employed versus the case with no magnets. Future work will involve implementing a Langmuir probe for more detailed characterization of the plasma, investigation of the effects of using a symmetric rather than a multicusp magnet arrangement, and ultimately the extraction and characterization of ion beams from the source. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.