A beam line for highly charged ions

The design and operation of a beam line for transporting and charge-to-mass selecting highly charged ions extracted from the National Institute of Standards and Technology electron beam ion trap (EBIT) are described. This beam line greatly extends the range of experiments possible at this facility. Using the transport system, pure beams of low-energy, highly charged ions up to Xe44+ have been produced with substantially higher fluxes than previously reported from an EBIT source. Design choices and computer modeling for the various components of the beam line are explained in detail. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.