Ion extraction from a helicon source and PIC simulation

The design of an ion extraction system often requires the help of computer codes. This article describes an experimental setup based on a helicon sour ce equipped with a three-grid extraction system and that is used as an ion source. A numerical approach based on a particles in cells (PIC) method is introduced. The results obtained with the ion source for different gases ar e compared with the simulation and are used in order to validate the comput er code. The numerical code is the first component of an ion source design package that deals with grid erosion and ion beam current distribution on t he target.