A Study of Electron Strings and Their Use for Efficient Production of Highly Charged Ions

This project is devoted to studies of the physics of electron plasmas and is based on the use of an Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) as a main instrument for the studies. In the normal mode of EBIS operation every electron passes the ion trap region only once. The idea to use it many times by repeated electrostatic reflections in a strong magnetic field was discussed and even tried many years ago on the basis of an usual construction of an EBIS electron gun. Then, starting in late 1993 these attempts were continued using a new gun-repeller construction and some interesting preliminary results were obtained [1,2,3,4]. In particular the phase transition to a so-called electron string state in a one component electron plasma was observed very recently. This project aims at investigating electron strings and their possible use in ion sources.