Time profiles of ions produced in a hot-cavity resonant ionization laser ion source

The time profiles of Cu, Sn, and Ni ions extracted from a hot-cavity resonant ionization laser ion source are investigated. The ions are produced in the ion source by three-photon resonant ionization with pulsed Ti:Sapphire lasers. Measurements show that the time spread of these ions generated within laser pulses of about 30 ns duration could be larger than 100 mu s when the ions are extracted from the ion source. A one-dimensional ion-transport model using the Monte Carlo method is developed to simulate the time dependence of the ion pulses. The prediction of the model agrees reasonably well with the experimental data. To reproduce the observed ion time profiles, we find it necessary to postulate that ion-wall collisions are suppressed inside the ion source by an undetermined ion confinement mechanism and that a substantial fraction of the extracted ions are generated in the vapor-transfer tube rather than the hot cavity. Three-dimensional modeling will be necessary to understand the strong reduction in losses expected from ion-wall collisions which we interpret as evidence for confinement. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.