Elektronenstrahlionenquellen für die Grundlagenforschung mit Strahlen hochgeladener Ionen: Ultrahochvakuumtechnologie im Einsatz für die Erzeugung höchster Ladungszustände

Electron Beam Ion Sources for fundamental research with highly charged ions: Ultra high vacuum technology to reach highest charge states. Fundamental research with highly charged ions is often connected to huge accelerator facilities with limited beam time. Room-temperature electron beam ion sources provide a compact, reasonable and simple approach to produce these exotic material conditions in onsite laboratories. This article introduces the functional principle of the electron beam ion source. The technological challenges of the vacuum generation and manipulation are discussed. Highly charged ions are used in various fields, for instance for x-ray spectroscopy to identify characteristic x-ray lines from astronomical x-ray spectra. Furthermore, the precision measurement of nuclear radii and masses, as well as the generation of small dedicated surface modification are applications for highly charged ions. These two research fields are explained based on the KOALA experiment in Darmstadt for laser spectroscopy and the work group time4ions at the Vienna University of Technology. © 2021, John Wiley and Sons Inc. All rights reserved.