Experiments on Ion Space-Charge Neutralization with Pulsed Electron Beams

The method of space-charge neutralization of heavy ion beams with electron beam pulses generated with electron guns incorporating ferroelectric cathodes has been experimentally investigated. Several experiments are described, the results of which prove that the intensity of selected ion beam parts with defined charge states generated in a laser ion source may be increased by one order of magnitude. For elevated charge states the intensity amplification is more significant than for low charge states. For $Al^(7+)$ ions from an aluminium target a charge enhancement by a factor of 4 has been achieved by electron beam focusing.