Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project

The TRIUMF charge state booster (CSB), based on a 14.5 GHz PHOENIX ECR ion source, raises the charge state of ions from rare isotopes prior to injection into the post accelerator linac. Therewith it allows TRIUMF the post acceleration of isotopes from elements beyond mass 30 to the medium mass range and avoids the stripping of ions at very low kinetic energies, which is not efficient in terms of transmission. An inherent issue of the CSB is that an ECR Ion Source does not operate at Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) conditions and has a significant output of background ions. That's the reason why the level of impurities in such devices is generally high which is a drawback when dealing with very low radioactive ion intensity injection. Investigations of the 1+ to n+ conversion processes in the community demonstrated that the efficiency of the process and quality of the highly charged ion beam produced by the CSB can be significantly enhanced by optimizing the plasma conditions and the beam formation in the extraction region. The ECRIS is superior to an EBIS related to the production of intense beams of rare isotopes >10^8 per second, which is required for nuclear astrophysics experiments. However, the 1+to n+ conversion rate depends on the flexibility of the injection optics, the plasma conditions and the beam formation upon ion extraction, which need to be improved and are the objective of leading edge research in this area. The main objective of this proposal is to improve the TRIUMF CSB performance in terms of beam quality, charge breeding efficiency and beam purity, by introducing techniques which are matter of investigations in the community. The goal is to bring TRIUMF back into the international leadership in charge breeding with ECRIS devices and to deliver higher quality and new beams to the experiments at ISAC. As the injection- and the ionisation efficiency as well as the beam purity essentially depend on the plasma conditions, the two-frequency heating and the tuning of the microwave frequency, will be introduced. These techniques rely on the generation of plasma modes that allow higher plasma densities and optimum coupling of the rf-power as well as stable plasma conditions. The project described in this proposal intends to investigate systematically the charge breeding efficiency and the beam quality by - modifying the plasma conditions using two frequency heating and frequency tuning - beam emittance measurements and corresponding beam extraction calculations. In addition, the CSB will be used to generate intense beams from offline samples for the first time. The significant improvement of the CSB breeding efficiency, the beam properties and additional beam production capabilities will benefit the experimental program at ISAC in particular for accelerated beam experiments. The second aspect is the training of highly qualified personnel in the field of plasma ion sources in general and on ECRIS sources.