10th International symposium on Negative Ions, Beams and Sources - NIBS'26

Session

S1: Chairperson - Mark Roberts, WHOI

Sep 23, 2026, 8:10 AM

Conference Room (Prestige Lakeside Resort Nelson)

44. Review on alkali vapor charge exchange canals for He- and report on HIAF ANU alpha injector.

Nikolai Lobanov (Australian National University)

9/23/26, 8:10 AM

Invited

This paper reviews the operational principles, technical implementations, and fundamental physics of alkali vapor charge-exchange canals used for the production of negative helium (He⁻) ion beams. Emphasis is placed on performance characteristics, efficiency, and limitations relevant to modern accelerator applications. In addition, we report on recent upgrades to the Australian National...

85. Negative Helium Ion Production Using Nano-Foils

Philip Jackle (Simon Fraser University, D-Pace)

9/23/26, 8:35 AM

Invited

Negative helium (He⁻) ion beams combined with tandem accelerators are used in research and industrial processes such as accelerator mass spectrometry and power semiconductor manufacture. The established production method involves double-charge exchange between a positive helium (He⁺) beam and a low-pressure metal vapour, typically an alkali. While this method achieves effective conversion...

71. Microwave driven Permanent Magnet Negative Helium ion source

Mikko Laitinen (University of Jyväskylä)

9/23/26, 9:00 AM

Contributed Oral

Negative helium ion sources are typically required for tandem accelerators where they are mostly used for materials analysis in the form of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). As alkaline metal vapor is required for charge conversion of the positive ion beam to negative – with conversion rates < 2%, these type of He- ion sources tend to have limited beam intensity and maintenance...

48. Latest Developments of Liquid Spray Neutralization for Neutral Beam Injection

Prof. SARGIS TER-AVETISYAN (Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP), IFIN HH, Magurele, Romania)

9/23/26, 9:20 AM

Invited

A large number of high-energy beams of negative ions and neutral atoms were observed when a beam of positive ions passed through a liquid spray. It has been shown that the energy conversion efficiency of positive ions into neutrals is 38% for 𝐻+→ 𝐻0 and 50% for 𝐶4+→ 𝐶0 [1] at energies up to 140 keV and 1.2 MeV, respectively. The method is rather general in nature and can be applied to other...