A lithium-fluoride flashover ion source cleaned with a glow discharge and irradiated with vacuum-ultraviolet radiation

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Abstract
We have studied methods of varying the ion species generated by a lithium-fluoride overcoated anode in a 0.5-MV magnetically insulated ion diode. We found that cleaning the anode surface with a 13.6-MHz rf glow discharge or illuminating the anode with a pulsed soft x-ray, vacuum-ultraviolet (XUV) radiation source just before the accelerator pulse significantly altered the ion species of the ion beam produced by the diode. The glow-discharge plasma removed adsorbates (carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen) from the surface of the LiF flashover source. The ions seen were lithium and hydrogen. Unfortunately, the diode impedance with a lithium-fluoride anode was high and the ion efficiency was low; however, XUV irradiation of the surface dramatically lowered the impedance by desorbing neutrals from the ion source via photon-stimulated desorption. Current densities of ten times the Child–Langmuir space-charge limit were achieved under XUV irradiation. In particular, ion currents increased by over a factor of 3 when 12 mJ/cm2 of XUV radiation was used. However, with XUV irradiation the largest fraction of ions were fluorine, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen, not lithium.