Metastable fractions of singly charged ion beams extracted from different ion sources have been determined by measurement of secondary electron spectra which result from slow ion-induced potential emission from a well-defined solid surface. Data are presented for Ar+, Kr+, Xe+ beams produced by a NIER-type electron impact source, a ‘‘COLUTRON’’-type low-pressure arc plasma source, and a ‘‘DUOPLASMATRON’’-type magnetically compressed arc plasma source, respectively. The measured metastable fractions are accurate within 25%, and their dependence on various ion source parameters can be well explained with a simple model of metastable ion production and loss kinetics.
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Hofer et al. (1983) studied this question.