A low energy ion beam line for highly charged ions

An ion beam line is presented, which is designed to study the interaction of highly charged ions with matter, especially solid surfaces. The highly charged ions are produced in a room temperature electron beam ion trap, the Dresden EBIT [1,2]. This device delivers bare nuclei up to elements with an atomic number of about 28, and neon-like ions up to about Z = 80. After leaving the trap the ion beam containing several neighbouring ion charge states passes through standard ion optics elements before entering an analysing magnet for separating a certain ion charge state. In a following deceleration unit, which will be integrated soon, the ions can be slowed down to a definite kinetic energy of a few eV. The characteristic of the HCI beam is presented, combined with ion extraction spectra of selected elements detected by a Faraday cup after passing through an analysing magnet. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.