Charged by the existing operation facility HIRFL and HIAF one of the next generation heavy ion facilities under construction, high intensity high-charge state heavy ion beams production is in the high priority of research and development. For this purpose, several high performance ECR ion sources have been successively developed and put in routine operation. The recently developed FECR or the...
FRIB has now been in operations for over 2 years and deliver beam to the nuclear physics users with high reliability and high efficiency. Two ECR ion sources are used to produce a high charge state heavy ion beam including a 28 GHz capable, superconducting ECR that has been used for the scientific program since the beginning of 2023. Central to the performance of the FRIB accelerator are a...
High intensity Uranium ²³⁸U³⁵⁺ ion beams are produced in the 28 GHz superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source(SC-ECRIS) and accelerated to high energies in the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory(RIBF) at RIKEN. We report the current progress of the SC-ECRIS. Intense beam operation of U³⁵⁺ was made possible through the development of high temperature ovens with optimized consumption...
The GANIL (Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds) in Caen has been producing and accelerating stable and radioactive ion beams for nuclear physics, atomic physics, radiobiology and materials irradiation since 1982.
On cyclotrons facility, two ion sources (ECR4 and ECR4M) are used to produce around 4,000 hours per year of gaseous and metallic beams. Recently, studies have been carried out...
Within the framework of research on simultaneous heavy ion radiotherapy and radiography, a mixed carbon/helium ion beam with a variable He percentage has been successfully established and investigated at GSI for the first time in order to study this new mode of image guidance for carbon ion beam therapy.
The mixed C/He ion beam was provided by the 14.5 GHz CAPRICE ECR ion source for the...
The GSI CAPRICE Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source (ECRIS) provides highly-charged ion beams for various experiments at GSI, enabling the delivery of continuous wave (CW) metallic ion beams with low material consumption, which is crucial for producing high charge state ion beams from rare or extremely rare isotopes such as 48Ca. These metallic beams are produced utilizing the thermal...
Essential to the proposed search for element 120 at LBNL’s 88-Inch Cyclotron is the continual delivery of over a particle microamp of ⁵⁰Ti¹²⁺ for weeks-long campaigns spanning many months. The fully-superconducting ECR ion source VENUS will be the injector source for these runs, and we have developed a new inductive oven design that can survive VENUS’ high magnetic fields while injecting...
Since the development of inductive heating oven in 2019 [1], several intense highly charged metallic ion beams have been produced for different requirements at IMP (Institute of Modern Physics). According to the material characteristics, we used different forms of metal materials, including metal elements (Cr, Mn, Ni, Fe), oxides (UO₂), fluoride or iodide (ZrF₄, SrF₂, CsI), etc. Detail...
In the present work, we will present the status of the deuterium-deuterium (D-D) neutron source that is being developed in collaboration between the University of Granada and the University of the Basque Country (Spain).
Our neutron source consists of an ECR ion source which accelerates a deuteron beam towards a deuterated target. The ionization to achieve the deuterium plasma is achieved...
At INFN-Legnaro National Laboratories the heavy ions accelerator complex is fed with beams produced by a permanent magnet ECR source called LEGIS (LEGnaro ecrIS). Although suitable intensities and charge states to fulfil the requests of the users are normally guaranteed, the first part of the Low Energy Beam Transport line (LEBT) downstream of the ion source suffers from non-negligible losses...
Developments of ECR intense light ion sources is an important research axis of the Laboratory of Study and Development of Accelerator at CEA-Saclay. Starting from the SILHI proton source in the 90’s to inject the IPHI accelerator, several SILHI-type sources have been realized and installed for high intensity proton or deuteron accelerators for international projects like IFMIF, FAIR or...
ALISESv3 is a very compact light ion source that has been developed at CEA Saclay in 2018. The easy maintenance procedure of this source allowed us to test many different configurations. On the BETSI test bench equipped with an single Alisson Scanner and a pair a solenoid/deviator, we studied the extraction energy influence, we changed the number of electrodes in order to extract different...
ECR ion sources are widely used to provide ions for various experimental setups. DREEBIT GmbH aims to industrialize this type of ion source technology for efficient and reliable use in, e. g., hadron cancer therapy as well as ion implantation of semiconductors. Our goal is to build table-top sized ion sources which can easily be handled as part of a larger machine such as a particle...
Recent advances with the CERN infrastructure for machine learning allows to deploy state-of-the-art data-driven control algorithms for stabilising and optimising particle accelerator systems. This contribution summarises the results of the first tests with different continuous control algorithms to optimise the intensity out of the CERN LINAC3 source. The task is particularly challenging due...
Industrial accelerators are currently employed in a multitude of fields, including semiconductor manufacturing and medicine. In recent years, there has been a growing demand to enhance the irradiation throughput of industrial accelerators, which necessitates the development of high-current ion sources. In this study, we developed a 2.45 GHz off-resonance 100 mA-class CW microwave ion source...
The Cyclotron laboratory (CRC) was created in 1972 with the installation of the cyclotron “CYCLONE” (Kb = 110) in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Until late 90’s, this cyclotron was dedicated to research in nuclear physics (ISOL RIBs, used for nuclear astrophysics measurements), nuclear chemistry and medicine (neutron and proton therapy). The CRC now mainly delivers ions beams for industrial...
The GANIL (Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds) in Caen produces up to 20 % of the beam times dedicated to industrial applications, such as the irradiation of electronic components.
The SAGA (Space Application at GAnil) project aims to increase beam times for these applications in the future in order to meet demand from French and European industries.
In this context, one of the...
Intense pulsed uranium ion beam production is essential for heavy ion accelerators (especially for synchrotrons) in operation and those under construction. Although metallic beam production is tricky, based on our earlier study, intense uranium beams can be expected when operating a electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source especially in afterglow mode. In this study, we aim to produce...
Starting from 2028, physics programmes using ions at CERN have requested lighter ions than the lead usually produced. The Working Group on Future Ions in the CERN Accelerator Complex has been mandated to assess the feasibility of the production and operation of these new ion species. The ion beam production from two of the chosen elements, krypton and magnesium, was studied in the GTS-LHC ion...
In this paper we present the methodology used to acquire the data needed to obtain and train a neural network that will be used in an ECR source to infer the state of the plasma. All the data is the combination of the control signals and a set of non-intrusive measurements that can be accessed during normal operation.
For this purpose, machine learning techniques are explored. First, a set...
Highly charged ion beams have wide applications in fundamental sciences such as nuclear physics and atomic and molecular physics, as well as in applied industries including heavy ion cancer therapy and semiconductor processing. The Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source is one of the most effective devices for producing highly charged ion beams. Based on the requirement for a relatively...
Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) Ion Sources are widely used as the first stage of high energy (MeV – GeV) accelerators providing ion beams for versatile research fields including nuclear and particle physics. However, in the Atomki the 2nd generation 14 GHz ECR ion source operates as a standalone device opening the possibility to develop research areas requiring low energy ion beams in the...
SEISM (Sixty gigahErtz Ion Source using Megawatt magnets) is an electron cyclotron resonance ion source source operating at the frequency of 60 GHz using a gyrotron producing high intensity HF pulse (up to 1 ms/300 kW/2 Hz). The prototype is based on an axial cusp magnetic geometry using polyhelix coils (installed at the LNCMI facility in Grenoble) generating a closed ECR surface at 2.1 T....
Over the past three decades a portion of the accelerated beam time at the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) has been reserved for ultra-sensitive detection of argon radioisotopes. A unique noble-gas accelerator mass spectrometry (NOGAMS) technique [*] at ATLAS combines electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) positive ion production, acceleration up to ~6 MeV/u and...
D-Pace has licensed a 2.45 GHz ECR ion source from Neutron Therapeutics. The ion source will be used for the Neutron Target Demonstrator project at Los Alamos National Laboratory where 10 mA of singly charge krypton ions at 50 keV are required with a normalized 4-RMS emittance of less than 1 mm·mrad. The goal of the project is to create a reverse kinematics neutron capture reaction with ⁸⁴Kr...
The user requests for higher beam energies and intensities have driven the decision to upgrade the ECR2 ion source at the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System. Multiple upgrades are in progress with the expected outcome of dramatically increased ECR2 beam intensities and charge state capabilities. The magnetic upgrades include integrating an improved hexapole permanent magnet array* that...
The capture of the 1+ beam is a key parameter in the charge breeding process with an ECRIS-Charge Breeder as it greatly influences the 1+N+ conversion efficiency. The shape of the efficiency vs incident ion energy « Delta V » curve originally led to the theory of slowing down of the injected ions essentially by cumulative small-angle scatterings in collisions with the buffer gas ions. Recent...
We present updates of a simulation suite to model in-plasma ion-electron dynamics, including self-consistent electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation and ion population kinetics to study atomic processes in ECR plasmas. The EM absorption is modelled by a heuristic collisional term in the cold dielectric tensor. However, we are stepping beyond the cold approximation, modelling the hot tensor with...
A new electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) named ASTERICS is under development for the NEWGAIN project, aiming at building a new injector for the SPIRAL2 accelerator at GANIL. A Monte Carlo code dedicated to the electron dynamics in ECRIS is used to investigate the local energy, position and velocity distribution of electrons impinging on the plasma chamber wall of ASTERICS. These...
INFN-LNS effort in PIC development for ECR Ion Sources is growing, and the collaboration is enlarging. Simulation capability is essential to reveal phenomena that diagnostics cannot catch. The simulation incorporates 3D charged particle motion, 3D electromagnetic simulation with tensorial permittivity, 2D axial symmetric Poisson solver, density evolution of neutral and excited particles,...
A Monte Carlo (MC) code dedicated to the electron dynamics in ECRIS was recently completed with a new functionality, allowing to simulate Bremsstrahlung photon emission from the volume interaction of electrons with charged particles inside the plasma. The simulation qualitatively reproduces the experimental anisotropy of the photon spectral temperature previously reported. The effects of...
This contribution deals with the upcoming PANDORA (Plasmas for Astrophysics, Nuclear Decay Observations and Radiation for Archaeometry) facility*, at INFN-LNS, Catania. PANDORA aims at measuring β-radioactivity rates and chemical element opacity in plasmas produced in an electron cyclotron resonance ion trap (ECRIT). The beta-decay rates are expected to vary of several orders of magnitude in a...
The VENUS electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source uses injected 18 and 28 GHz microwave power to resonantly energize electrons for plasma ionization. Waveguide antennas detecting 18 and 28 GHz microwaves located after the extraction electrode exit aperture of the source are used to measure the transmitted microwave power under different source and plasma conditions. In addition, an...
The energy spread of ion beams extracted from Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion sources is influenced by plasma conditions such as the plasma potential, and effects taking place in the beam formation region. Kinetic plasma instabilities have a significant impact on the plasma properties, and consequently on the ion beam energy spread. We present experimental results of time-resolved...
In the frame of the PANDORA* project and the SAMOTHRACE ecosystem (Italian PNRR in the EU Next Gen Program contest), two new plasma diagnostics testbenches – PYN-HO and VESPRI2.0 setups – have been developed at INFN-LNS, with the aim to design and improve detectors and techniques beyond the state of art. The PYN-HO prototype is conceived to operate in four configurations: two of them to...
The simulation of the ion extraction from the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Sources (ECRISs) is necessary for the optimization and development of the performance of ion sources.
Due to the magnetic field configuration of the ECRISs the calculations need to be performed in 3D.
Therefore simulation programs based i.e. on C⁺⁺ libraries like IBSimu were developed. In this work a physical...
Since the powerful capability of producing high charge state ions for heavy ions and the long lifetime of the ECR ion source is deemed one of the most robust ion source types. So far, the 3rd generation ECR built with NbTi superconductor has a wonderful performance reference to the ECR used by LBNL and IMPCAS for a long time. However, this type of ECR has not got a well spread and further...
The Ion Source Group has undertaken a R&D project of a compact low energy injector. The project is the development of an intense proton source and low energy beam (LEBT) for a transportable neutron source. The specific characteristics of the injector are low power consumption, compact and low beam emittance. An electrostatic low energy beam transport with a double Einzel-Lens setup is used to...
RAON (Rare isotope Accelerator complex for ON-line experiments) is a heavy ion accelerator under construction in Daejeon, South Korea. RAON plans to operate a 28 GHz Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source (ECRIS) with a fully superconducting magnet and is currently operating a 14.5 GHz ECR ion source with a fully permanent magnet. The 14.5 GHz ECRIS was manufactured by PANTECHNIK and...
In this paper we analyze the behavior of a low beam current proton ECR ion source for linac. During the operation of the source, as a function of the operating parameters we have observed a complex behavior. The state of the plasma is highly dependent on the input parameters, and in some cases even bi-stable conditions can be achieved showing abrupt changes in the state. To try to understand...
This study investigates an efficient injection of high-intensity light ions from an Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source into a Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator. An often-adopted solution for the beam matching between an ion source and an RFQ is to apply two solenoids as a Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) section. There are also other solutions which skip the LEBT section...
Microwave discharge ion sources (MDIS) and electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRIS) are widely used to feed particle accelerators. Their magnetic field consists in an axis-symmetric magnetic field that can be produced by permanent magnets or coils with the aim of assuring plasma heating by electron cyclotron resonance and confining the plasma axially. In ECRIS, a sextupole is added for...
NQSTI (National Quantum Science and Technology Institute) is the enlarged partnership on QST established under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU. In this framework, there is a growing interest in the availability of mA beams of singly charged (1+) metallic ions to realise quantum devices. To satisfy this request, the joint INFN...
An all-permanent magnet electron cyclotron resonance ion source-LAPECR3 (Lanzhou All Permanent magnet Electron Cyclotron Resonance ion source No.3) had been developed as the C⁵⁺ ion beam injector of Heavy Ion Medical Machine (HIMM) accelerator facility since 2009 in China. The first HIMM demo facility was built in Wuwei city in 2015, which had been officially licensed to treat patients in...
The GTS-LHC electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source is an integral part of the chain of accelerators at CERN. It produces the heavy ion beams which are accelerated using a series of accelerators from LINAC up to the LHC. The ion beams are extracted from an ECR plasma generated at the GTS-LHC ion source, however, there has not yet been a non-invasive diagnostic device to study the plasma....
The Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT) is a hospital-based treatment facility in Germany. Since the first treatments in 2009, more than 8.500 patients have been irradiated with protons or carbon ions and since July 2021 with helium ions. At HIT, three Supernanogan ion sources supplied by Pantechnik are in operation around the clock for therapy up to 335 days a year.
A 4th Supernanogan...
In the scope of high current protons sources simulations, we tried to simulate the plasma chamber of the SILHI proton source with HFSS. This work focuses on the RF and multipactor simulation close to the boron nitride window.
In the scope of high current protons sources characterization, the CEA is working on a 4D-emittancemeter based on the pepperpot technology. After some unsuccessful developments with phosphorous scintillators, we decided to test micro-channel plates (MCP) for measurements of proton beams at very low energy (typically between 50 and 100 keV). MCP are supposed to resist to proton beams at very...
A 48.5 MHz RFQ has been designed to transport and accelerate ²³⁸U⁴⁰⁺ (0.52 emA) and ²⁰⁹Bi³⁰⁺ (1.047 emA) beams extracted from a high performance ECR ion source. The RFQ design comprises of a pre-buncher built into the vanes to narrow the transmitted charge state distribution as much as possible. The design parameters as a function of cell length is optimised on ²⁰⁹Bi³⁰⁺. It is shown that the...
During first operation of SILHI in 1995 at CEA Saclay, a velocity filter diagnostic (Wien Filter) was installed on the LEBT, analyzing the 100 mA of protons at 95 keV. The device was used many years providing beam proportion measurements on the beam axis. Unfortunately, it was damaged while handling and was no longer working as intended. This paper describes the maintenance and upgrade of the...
The Institute for Plasma Research has set up a 14-MeV neutron generator facility. The stability, quality, and repeatability of the D⁺ ion beam are critical parameters for ensuring the reliable operation of the neutron generator. Hence, a 2.45 GHz ECR ion source has been installed to produce the deuterium beam. The primary D beam characteristics are assessed by varying extraction voltage,...
Recently, Accelerator Based Radiation Therapy (ABRT) facilities for cancer treatment, that includes ion therapy and BNCT, have been bloomed up rapidly and is being established as a future modality to start a new era of in-hospital facilities around the world. A high current, small emittance, easy maintenance, long lifetime, high stability and reliability ion source is crucially important for...
The ionization of ions to a higher charge state is of central importance for the development of new Accelerator Facilities like FAIR [1], and the resulting cost savings. Currently, mainly gas and foil strippers are used for increasing the charge state even after using a high performance ECR ion source in a typical Accelerator chain. Even when the foil or/and gas stripper efficiency or lifetime...
MedAustron is a synchrotron-based cancer therapy center providing proton and carbon ion beams in an energy range of 62–252 MeV/u and of 120–400 MeV/u, respectively. The facility has three clinical irradiation rooms, among which horizontal and vertical beam lines as well as a proton gantry are available for treatment. A fourth irradiation room is dedicated to non-clinical research and will...
An operator of the superconducting ECR ion source VENUS tasked with optimizing the current of a specific ion species or finding a stable operating mode is faced with an operation space composed of ten-to-twenty knobs in which to determine the next move. Machine learning techniques are well-suited to multidimensional optimization spaces.Over the last three years we have been working to employ...
Five ECR ion sources operating at 18-45 GHz microwave frequency are being operated or under commissioning to deliver highly-charged ion beams for high-intensity heavy ion cyclotron and linac accelerators at IMP in order to meet different requirements from the accelerators and physics experiments. One of the key issues for the ECRIS and accelerator physicists is how to match the highly-charged...
The main aim of Plasmas for Astrophysics Nuclear Decays Observation and Radiation for Archaeometry (PANDORA) project is to build a flexible magnetic plasma trap where plasma reaches a density nₑ ∼ 10¹¹ – 10¹³ cm⁻³, and a temperature, in units of kT, kTₑ ∼ 0.1 – 30 keV in order to measure, for the first time, nuclear β-decay rates in stellar-like conditions.
Here we present the numerical...
A custom 18 GHz waveguide DC break with a built-in impedance matching network, consisting of two inductive irises adjacent to a capacitive gap assembled around a quartz disk, was built for VENUS and simulated using the ANSYS High Frequency Structure Simulator, a finite element analysis tool. The DC break effectively doubled the RF power available for plasma production at the secondary...
