6.4 GHz ECR ion source at VECC

The 6.4 GHz ECR ion source that was indigenously developed a few years ago has been operating continuously for injecting oxygen and neon beams to the cyclotron since 1997. VEC-ECR is a single stage high magnetic field ion source provided with a negatively biased electron repeller placed on the axis, near the injection mirror point. The supply of cold electrons and use of low mass mixing gas improve the stability of ECR plasma. Very recently, the effect of aluminum oxide coating on the copper plasma chamber wall has been studied. The plasma chamber wall was coated with aluminum by vacuum evaporation method and then exposed to oxygen gas to form aluminum oxide. It was noticed that the process substantially shifts the charge state distribution to the higher charge state with an enhancement of ion current by an order of magnitude. With the aluminized plasma chamber, the VEC-ECR can now produce 12 µA of O7+, 6.5 µA of Ar12+, 1.5 µA of Kr20+ and 1.0 µA of Xe31+.