Thomson spectrometer analysis of collectively accelerated ions

An intense relativistic electron beam (0.5 MeV, 30 kA, 60 ns) was used for the collective acceleration of ions from (1) a localized gas ion source and (2) a localized plasma ion source. The ion energy scaling as a function of ion mass and charge state was found by using a Thomson spectrometer. Peak ion energy depended very weakly on ion mass and was independent of ion charge state. Although the presence of the ion source was necessary for ion acceleration to occur, generally the ion source did not supply the bulk of accelerated ions as many impurity ions were present.