Plasma source for mass separation facilities

A new type of metallic plasma source for mass-separation facilities is presented. The source consists of a crucible with an amount of liquid metal as anode that is heated with emitting cathode. The anode was biased with a voltage of +200 V. The emitted plasma flow flowing through a magnetic plasma transport system with field lines map of a fountain type that was formed by two solenoids with oppositely directed magnetic fields. The ion energy distribution measured with a RFA showed that the directed energy of the plasma flow was about of 100 V with FWHW of the distribution of 10 eV. The ionization degree was about of 20% and ion density attained of 5·10 12 cm −3 . It was shown that plasma flow with different ion masses moving along the magnetic field lines approached exit of the transport system at different areas. This result means that the plasma source is a promising one for the mass-separation problems.