Electron-beam enhancement of the metal vapor vacuum arc ion source

We report detailed investigations of the electron-beam metal vapor vacuum arc (E-MEVVA) ion source. The experiments were performed in Moscow and Tomsk with nearly the same design of ion sources. We recently reported the first conclusive demonstration of electron-beam enhancement of MEVVA performance using lead and bismuth cathodes, which yielded maximum ion charge states of Pb7+ and Bi8+ for E-MEVVA, as compared to Pb2+ and Bi2+ for conventional MEVVA operation. In this article we report extensive results for additional cathode materials, further details of the Moscow and Tomsk ion sources, and a discussion of electron beam effects on E-MEVVA performance. These results can be considered as a proof of the E-MEVVA principle. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.