Patent ID: 7247992

Claim:
Ion accelerator system having an ionization chamber, an electrode arrangement, and a magnet arrangement, wherein the ionization chamber has an ion exit opening in a longitudinal direction, and is delimited by at least one side wall crosswise to the longitudinal direction, and wherein working gas can be introduced into the ionization chamber by way of an introduction opening that is spaced at a distance from the exit opening, the electrode arrangement contains at least one cathode and one anode, and generates an electrical field for accelerating positively charged working gas ions in the direction of the exit opening, the magnet arrangement in the ionization chamber generates a magnetic field that has, in the longitudinal direction, at least one longitudinal segment of a second type, having a magnetic field direction essentially parallel to the longitudinal direction, and an adjacent longitudinal segment of a first type, having a comparatively higher proportion of the field component perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, the wall distance between wall surfaces that stand opposite one another is less in the longitudinal segment of the second type than in the longitudinal segment of the first type, wherein the wall progression in the longitudinal segment of the second type demonstrates a monotonously curved curvature towards the ionization chamber, in the longitudinal direction.