The migration of intense ionization created in helium buffer gas under the
influence of applied electric fields is considered. First the chemical
evolution of the ionization created by fast heavy-ion beams is described.
Straight forward estimates of the lifetimes for charge exchange indicate a
clear suppression of charge exchange during ion migration in low pressure
helium. Then self-consistent calculations of the migration of the ions in the
electric field of a gas-filled cell at the National Superconducting Cyclotron
Laboratory (NSCL) using a Particle-In-Cell computer code are presented. The
results of the calculations are compared to measurements of the extracted ion
current caused by beam pulses injected into the NSCL gas cell.Comment: Accepted for pubilication in Nucl. Instrum. Meth. B, 14 pages, 8
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