Development of hollow anode penning ion source for laboratory application

The research work presented here focuses for the development of miniature penning type ion source. One hollow anode penning type ion source was developed in our laboratory. The size of the ion source is 38 mm diameter and 55 mm length. The ion source consists of two cathodes, a hollow anode and one piece of rare earth permanent magnet. The plasma was created in the plasma region between cathodes and the hollow anode. The J × B force in the region helps for efficient ionization of the gas even in the high vacuum region∼1×10−5 Torr. The ions were extracted in the axial direction with help of the potential difference between the electrodes and the geometry of the extraction angle. The effect of the extraction electrode geometry for efficient extraction of the ions from the plasma region was examined. This ion source is a self extracted ion source. The self extracted phenomena reduce the cost and the size of the ion source. The extracted ion current was measured by a graphite probe. An ion current of more than 200 μA was observed at the probe placed 70 mm apart from the extraction electrode. In this paper, the structure of the ion source, effect of operating pressure, potential difference and the magnetic field on the extracted ion current is reported.