High performance electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources, such as VENUS (Versatile ECR for NUclear Science), produce large amounts of x-rays. By studying their energy spectra, conclusions can be drawn about the electron heating process and the electron confinement. In addition, the bremsstrahlung from the plasma chamber is partly absorbed by the cold mass of the superconducting magnet, adding an extra heat load to the cryostat. Germanium or NaI detectors are generally used for x-ray measurements. Due to the high x-ray flux from the source, the experimental setup to measure bremsstrahlung spectra from ECR ion sources is somewhat different from that for the traditional nuclear physics measurements these detectors are generally used for. In particular, the collimation and background shielding can be problematic. In this paper, we will discuss the experimental setup for such a measurement, the energy calibration and background reduction, the shielding of the detector, and collimation of the x-ray flux. We will present x-ray energy spectra and cryostat heating rates depending on various ion source parameters, such as confinement fields, minimum B-field, rf power, and heating frequency.

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Diamagnetic current and low energy (2-70 keV) x-ray bremsstrahlung measurements taken on a 6.4 GHz electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS) are presented as a function of microwave power, neutral gas pressure and magnetic field configuration. X-ray flux from confined electrons and plasma energy density depend logarithmically on microwave power. This result differs from previous studies performed on ECRISs that operate at higher microwave frequencies, in which the x-ray power increases in an essentially linear fashion with the microwave power. X-ray power and plasma energy density both saturate as the neutral pressure is increased beyond a certain value. The gradient of the magnetic field is shown to have a large effect on both x-ray power and plasma energy density. Lastly, it is observed that the peak in x-ray power efficiency (x-ray power per unit of absorbed microwave power) and the peak in extracted ion current efficiency (recorded Faraday cup current per unit of absorbed microwave power) occur at different absorbed microwave powers.

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