Enhancement of electron heating in an ECR trap having a mixed multipole field – A Monte Carlo study

In electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion sources, confinement of ions and electrons is achieved with the help of an axial field in combination with a multipolar field. Generally sextupoles are used for this purpose. In a few sources, quadrupoles and octupoles also have been used. But sextupoles have been found to be most useful. We have investigated whether a combination of different multipoles can improve the performance of an ECR trap. A mixture of a sextupolar field and a dipole field has been found to enhance the electron heating to a large extent.