Patent ID: 7247993

Claim:
Ion accelerator arrangement having an ionization chamber, a magnet arrangement, and an electrode arrangement, and having means for introducing a neutral working gas into the ionization chamber, wherein the electrode arrangement generates an electrostatic acceleration field in the ionization chamber, for positively charged ions, which points predominantly in the longitudinal direction of the arrangement, the magnet arrangement generates a magnetic field in the ionization chamber, which has at least one longitudinal segment of a first type, having a magnetic field that runs predominantly perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, and a longitudinal segment of a second type, having a progression of the magnetic field that runs predominantly parallel to the longitudinal direction, adjacent to the longitudinal segment of the first type on both sides, in each instance, the ionization chamber has an ion exit opening in the longitudinal direction, and is delimited laterally by a circumferential chamber wall, and forms a simply cohesive cross-sectional surface perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the chamber cross-section, which is at least twice as great in a first direction (y) as in a second direction (x) perpendicular thereto.