Development of metallic ion beams using ECRIS

The low energy metallic ion beams find wide applications in various research fields of the materials science. Several metallic ion beams have been developed successfully using the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source based low energy ion beam facility (LEIBF) at Inter University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), New Delhi. These metallic ion beams were developed by different techniques and utilized for the synthesis of the metal nanoparticles inside various host matrices. The special emphasis was put on the development of the nickel (Ni) and iron (Fe) ion beams using volatile compounds. The hydrocarbon cluster beams were also observed in the charge state distribution (CSD) of the ECR plasma produced by the dissociation of the vapors from the volatile compound of iron. Ni and Fe ion beams were utilized to make a dilute magnetic semiconductor phase (nickel in silicon and iron in silicon) by implantation method. The ion beams extracted from the metallic ECR plasma have been analyzed in energy and momentum using a high mass resolution dipole magnet. Studies of the CSD of the output metallic ion beams and the co-relations among various source parameters are presented. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.