The main purpose of this work is to describe the
construction and operation of the low energy accelerator
with energy in the range from (zero to 100 KeV). This accelerator
includes an ion source of the cold cathode Penning type
(with pierce geometry for ion beam extraction), an accelerating
tube (with 8 electrodes) and Faraday cup (FC) for measuring
ion current. A vacuum system which gives vacuum of the
order 3.0 × 10−8 Torr is used. A
palladium tube is used to supply the source with pure hydrogen
atoms. It was possible to operate this accelerator with
an energy 50 KeV at minimum hydrogen pressure, 6.3 ×
10−6 Torr. The total resistance applied
between the accelerating electrodes RT
= 31.5 MΩ. These data include the influence of the
pressure in the accelerating tube, the magnetic field of
the ion source, the extraction potential and the accelerating
potential on the collector ion current. It was possible
to accelerate protons with an energy 50 KeV with current
about 100 μA at pressure 6.3 × 10−6
Torr, the source magnetic field = 110 G (IB
= 2 A), the arc current = 0.4 A and the extraction potential = 10 KV.