Vacuum arc ion sources—Micro to macro

Abstract

Vacuum arc ion sources provide a convenient tool for the production of intense beams of metal ions. The sources are relatively easy to construct and they can produce beams from all of the solid metals as well as from compounds, alloys, and mixtures. We have made a number of different kinds of such sources over the course of our development work at LBL in the past decade, from very small ‘‘thumb-size’’ versions to a very large one with a 50 cm diameter extractor. Beam current ranges from a few milliamperes up to almost 10 A and extraction voltage from about 1 to 100 kV. Multicathode versions have been made so that one can switch between metal ion species simply and quickly. Most of the sources have been operated in a repetitively pulsed mode, and we’ve also tested a dc version. Here we outline some construction features of the array of vacuum arc ion sources that we’ve developed and used, and describe their performance and limitations.

Some Vacuum-Arc-Based Plasma and Ion Beam Tools for Surface Modification

“…Many different vacuum arc ion sources have been made at quite a number of laboratories around the world, and two embodiments are shown in Fig. 4 -a very small version («thumb-sized») and an embodiment forming a 50-cm diameter ion beam [35]. The latter has demonstrated Ti ion beams of 100 keV energy and beam current 20 Amperes.…”