Effects of secondary γ-electrons from accelerator grid under ion impingement in gridded ion sources

Thus far, effects of secondary γ-electrons emitted from accelerator grids (AGs) of gridded ion sources on ionization in discharge chambers have not been studied. The presence and induced processes of such secondary electrons in a microwave electron cyclotron resonance gridded ion source are confirmed by the consistent explanations of: (1) the observed jump of ion beam current (I b) in case of a low-density plasma appearing at the chamber's radial center due to the microwave skin effect; (2) the evolution of glow images recorded from the end-view of the ion source during the jump of I b; (3) the over-large jump step of I b with increasing microwave power; (4) the pattern appearing on the temperature sticker exposed to the discharge operated in the regime where the arrayed energetic-electron beamlets are injected into the discharge chamber; (5) the measured step-increment in the voltage drop across the screen grid (SG) sheath. A positive feedback loop composed of involved processes is established to elucidate the underlying mechanism. Energetic γ-electrons from the AG and warm δ-electrons from the opposite antenna do not produce direct excitation and ionization, but they enhance the electrical confinement of cold electrons by elevating the voltage drop across the sheaths at the antenna and SG, thus leading to the jump of I b. The energetic γ-electrons-based model can be also modified to explain abnormal results observed in the other gridded ion sources. Energetic γ-electrons from AGs should be taken into account in understanding gridded ion sources.