Status report on studies of EBIS in the string mode of operation

A short description of an EBIS apparatus in the reflex mode of operation, resulting in electron string formation, and recent experimental results are presented. The focus is on experimental studies of electron energy distribution in strings, for which a long tail to high energy was observed and about 30% half width was confirmed by means of spectrometry using the radiative recombination of Ar17+. We have obtained considerable information about the dependency of the number of string electrons versus solenoid magnetic field strength using different EBIS sources and found that it has about 3 in power of B in the region 0-3.5 T. Preparations for the first experiments on the BNL EBIS Test Stand in the reflex mode of operation and for the first test of the JINR Krion-2 source in the string mode at the Nuclotron injector on acceleration of Ar16+ are also described briefly. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.