Principles of low energy ion beam formation in single-grid ion optical system

Abstract

The experimental investigations of principles of low energy ion beam formation in single-grid ion optical system with ICP discharge are reported. Two modes of ions extraction are discovered: beam regime and plasma regime with transition at some critical potential of inductively coupled plasma. Numerical estimations of critical potential for different conditions are reported. It is shown that the single-grid low energy ion source is capable of electron flow generation. The results obtained in this paper can be useful for the ion/electron flow ratio control.