Modification of anisotropic plasma diffusion via auxiliary electrons emitted by a carbon nanotubes-based electron gun in an electron cyclotron resonance ion source

The diffusion mechanism in magnetized plasmas is a largely debated issue. A short circuit model was proposed by Simon, assuming fluxes of lost particles along the axial (electrons) and radial (ions) directions which can be compensated, to preserve the quasi-neutrality, by currents flowing throughout the conducting plasma chamber walls. We hereby propose a new method to modify Simon's currents via electrons injected by a carbon nanotubes-based electron gun. We found this improves the source performances, increasing the output current for several charge states. The method is especially sensitive to the pumping frequency. Output currents for given charge states, at different auxiliary electron currents, will be reported in the paper and the influence of the frequency tuning on the compensation mechanism will be discussed. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3673634]