New Approach to Non-Volatile Metal Ion Production Using Plasma Ion Source with Internal Evaporator

A new approach to application the internal evaporator in an arc discharge ion source is presented, namely a crucible with a plug made of feeding substance. This solution is suitable especially for high-melting point metallic feeding substances. The ion source was tested using Ni and Cr. Basic ion source characteristics, i.e. dependences of ion current and discharge voltage on discharge and filament currents as well as on the external magnetic field flux density are shown and discussed in order to find optimal working conditions. The maximal ion currents were 18 μA for Ni+ and 38μA for Cr+. The stability of the ion current was also tested. It was proven that ion source is able to provide intense ion beam current long enough to perform irradiations with the fluence of ~5×1015 cm-2 confirming the usefulness of the design for ion implantation purposes.