A 2.45 GHz electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source with a single mode resonator is being developed to produce high efficient single charged ion beams from exiguous gaseous elements. The source is intended to produce short and long half-life radioactive ion beams as well as stable ion beams for low and high energy experiments at ISAC [J. M. Poutissou, Proceedings of the ISAC Workshop (1994)]. It is obvious that for the radioactive ion beam production, the gas and ion transient time and the overall ionization efficiency are the most important parameters. The transient time is measured using ultrafast peizoelectric gas valve which could operate up to a frequency of 2 kHz. A unique feature of the source is that the plasma chamber is considerably smaller (∼170 times) than its resonance cavity in order to minimize the transient time. Quartz tubes with various diameters (5–20 mm) and 80 mm long are tested as the plasma chamber and the results are discussed. The effect of the transfer tube length, which lin...