Discharging dynamics of insulator surfaces irradiated by highly charged ions

Abstract

Guiding and focusing of keV to MeV ions by insulator micro-capillaries offer exciting perspectives for the production of low divergence micro-sized beams and the spatial control over the irradiated zone. These effects result from the local charging of the capillary inner wall and depend strongly on the charging/discharging dynamics of the insulating material. This dynamics has been studied on various glass insulator surfaces (borosilicate, fused silica and quartz) by grazing incidence highly charged ion beams. We propose simple experimental methods to derive the relevant time constant and study the influence of temperature and different material properties to the charging process. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.