Principles
EBIT

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Electron-beam ion traps are devises to create highly charged ions up to U⁸⁹⁺ (Livermore National Laboratory). To successive charged up atoms or low charged ions a high current density is needed. Therefore a configuration of superconducting Helmholz coils with a magnetic field of about 3 Tesla is using to compressed the electron beam, which is creating outside the trap with a energy up to 30 keV. In our trap a current density of about 4000 A/cm² is achieved.
The ions are trapped axially by applying a trap voltage to the upper and lower drift tube and in radial direction by the attractive potential - space charge - of the electron beam. For a long confinement time of the ions an ultra-high vacuum condition required. The ions are charged up via electron impact ionization, but also lost their charge state by charge exchange and radiative recombination (for details see IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 33 (2005) 1763).

last update: October 24, 2011