Publications

Selective laser photodetachment of intense atomic and molecular negative ion beams with the ILIAS RFQ ion beam cooler

Author(s)
Martin Martschini, Johanna Pitters, Tobias Moreau, Pontus Andersson, Oliver Forstner, Dag Hanstorp, Johannes Lachner, Yuan Liu, Alfred Priller, Peter Steier, Robin Golser
Abstract

The Ion Laser InterAction Setup (ILIAS) project at the University of Vienna aims at the exploration of negative ion beam filtering by selective laser photodetachment for applications in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). A gas-filled radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) is used to decelerate and cool negative atomic and molecular ion beams with intensities of up to several hundred nA, and overlap them collinearly with a continuous wave (cw) laser beam. Ion-laser interaction times ranging from 500 μs to several ms allow for highly efficient, selective photodetachment depletion of disturbing ion species within these beams. The elemental selectivity of this technique is based on the differences in electron affinities, and therefore does not depend on relative differences in atomic numbers. It may therefore provide sufficient isobar suppression for new trace isotopes, which are not accessible with existing AMS techniques. The ILIAS RFQ cooler was characterized at a purpose-built test bench with respect to ion beam transmission, ion cooling capabilities and ion residence times as a function of injected ion current to assess its suitability for future AMS use. A 63Cu test beam of 600 nA was photodetached with more than 99.999% efficiency with a 532 nm laser at 10.8 W power. At the same time, ions of interest having electron affinities higher than the photon energy passed the cooler unaffected. Total ion losses were thus found to be below 50% of the sputter source output. Finally, first photodetachment experiments in connection with 26Al detection demonstrated selective isobar suppression of MgO vs. AlO by more than 4 orders of magnitude. Currently, the RFQ cooler is moved to a new injector beamline at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) for first applications of this novel technique at a state-of-the-art AMS facility.

Organisation(s)
Isotope Physics
External organisation(s)
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), FluxSense AB, University of Gothenburg, Oak Ridge National Laboratory , Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Journal
International Journal of Mass Spectrometry
Volume
415
Pages
9-17
No. of pages
9
ISSN
1387-3806
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijms.2016.12.015
Publication date
04-2017
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103014 Nuclear physics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Condensed Matter Physics, Instrumentation, Spectroscopy, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/selective-laser-photodetachment-of-intense-atomic-and-molecular-negative-ion-beams-with-the-ilias-rfq-ion-beam-cooler(005a40d5-fdbc-4a9d-b5b7-97bc78900409).html