Characteristics of the Shanghai high-temperature superconducting electron-beam ion trap and studies of the space-charge effect under ultralow-energy operating conditions

A high-temperature superconducting electron-beam ion trap (EBIT) has been set up at the Shanghai EBIT Laboratory for spectroscopic studies of low-charge-state ions. In the study reported here, beam trajectory simulations are implemented in order to provide guidance for the operation of this EBIT under ultralow-energy conditions, which has been successfully achieved with a full-transmission electron-beam current of 1–8.7 mA at a nominal electron energy of 30–120 eV. The space-charge effect is studied through both simulations and experiments. A modified iterative formula is proposed to estimate the space-charge potential of the electrons and shows very good agreement with the simulation results. In addition, space-charge compensation by trapped ions is found in extreme ultraviolet spectroscopic measurements of carbon ions and is studied through simulation of ion behavior in the EBIT. Based on the simulation results, the ion-cloud radius, ion density, and electron–ion overlap are obtained.