Charge Distributions of Oxygen and Neon Ions Passing through Gases

Abstract

Electrons were stripped from accelerated oxygen and neon ions by passing them through a gas. Magnetic deflection was used to select the energy and charge of the incident ions and to determine the distribution of ionic charges in the stripped beam. As the amount of gas that the ions passed through was increased, the peak of the charge distributions first shifted toward higher charge states and then became constant as equilibrium was established between capture and loss of electrons. At equilibrium in argon the charge distributions were bell-shaped, with a width of 1.8 charge states at half maximum. The average ionic charges for 3.3-, 6.1-, and 8.7-Mev O ions were 3.5, 4.8, and 5.2, respectively, and for 3.1-, 7.1-, and 10.3-Mev Ne ions 3.3, 4.9, and 6.0, respectively.