On the use of magnetic buckets for ion beam profile tailoring

Magnetic multipole plasma confinement geometries employing permanent magnet “buckets” are used extensively for a range of laboratory plasma applications. Among the several consequences for plasma confinement is the important result that the plasma can acquire a more-or-less flat density profile, which when embodied in an ion source, can also lead to a flat profile for the extracted ion beam. For many applications a uniform ion beam current density profile is quite advantageous, for example, for carrying out large-area ion implantation. There are, however, inherent limitations on the extent to which this approach to beam “homogenization” can be utilized, and even for a perfectly flat profile in the immediate postextraction region, the beam will evolve toward Gaussian as it propagates downstream. Here we describe the rare-earth permanent magnet bucket that we have incorporated into our broad-beam vacuum arc ion source, and its effect on the beam profile at the extractor and downstream. The experimental resu...