Measurements of bremsstrahlung production and x-ray cryostat heating in VENUS

The VENUS superconducting electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source is designed to operate at 28 GHz with up to 1.0 kW of rf power. Most of this power is absorbed by the plasma electrons and then dumped onto the plasma chamber wall. The distribution of heating and bremsstrahlung production is highly nonuniform and reflects the geometry of the magnetic confinement fields. The nonuniform distribution of electron losses to the wall results in localized heating on the aluminum chamber walls, which can lead to burnout. In addition, part of the bremsstrahlung produced by the collision of the hot-electrons with the walls is absorbed by the cold mass of the superconducting magnet leading to an additional heat load in the cryostat in the order of several watts. Therefore a new plasma chamber has been installed that incorporates a high-Z tantalum shield to reduce the cryostat heating and enhance water cooling to minimize the chance of burnout. In order to better understand the heat load, the spectrum of the bremsstrahlung has been carefully measured as a function of rf power, magnetic confinement, and rf frequency. In addition, the distribution of electron heating in VENUS magnetic field has been simulated with a three-dimensional computer code [H. Heinen and H. J. Andra, Proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on ECR Sources (CERN, Geneva, 1999), 224; H. J. Andra and A. Heinen, Proceedings of the 15th International Workshop on ECR Ion Sources, ECRIS'02 (Jyvaskyla, Finland 2002), 85.] to better understand the heat load distribution on the plasma chamber wall. The new plasma chamber design, results of the bremsstrahlung measurements, and the effectiveness of the high-Z shielding are described. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.