Compact electron cyclotron resonance ion source for calibration of space plasma instrumentation

Summary form only given. To test and calibrate instruments for space research applications, especially for experiments investigating the composition of heliospheric plasma, we have developed an electron cyclotron resonance ion source (ECRIS), which operates at 2.45 GHz using only permanent magnets to contain the plasma. The solar wind plasma flow typically contains elements with solar composition with the more abundant species having atomic masses from 1 amu (hydrogen) to 56 amu (iron). The most abundant species, up to Mg, are mostly stripped to the K-shell in the solar wind (e.g. oxygen occurs as O/sup 6+/) and iron quite frequently appears in the form of Fe/sup 16+/. The ECRIS contains an autonomous six-port reflectometer and impedance matching system, controlling the microwave heating process used for electron heating. The system provides important information on the characteristic impedance of the microwave load. In order to better understand the performance of our ECR ion source and to carry out technical improvements we have also established a plasma model solving the ion balance equations considering ionization, recombination and particle loss processes in the ion source. The combination of this plasma model with the data from the microwave process allows the determination of the source parameters such as ion confinement time, charge state distribution, density and temperature of the electrons. Experimental results as well as results from the plasma model calculations will be presented.