  A novel room-temperature ion source for the production of atomic ions in
electron beam within wide ranges of electron energy and current density is
developed. The device can operate both as conventional Electron Beam Ion
Source/Trap (EBIS/T) and novel Main Magnetic Focus Ion Source. The ion source
is suitable for generation of the low-, medium- and high-density microplasma in
steady state, which can be employed for investigation of a wide range of
physical problems in ordinary university laboratory, in particular, for
microplasma simulations relevant to astrophysics and ITER reactor. For the
electron beam characterized by the incident energy $E_e = 10$ keV, the current
density $j_e \sim 20$ kA/cm$^2$ and the number density $n_e \sim 2 \times
10^{13}$ cm$^{-3}$ were achieved experimentally. For $E_e \sim 60$ keV, the
value of electron number density $n_e \sim 10^{14}$ cm$^{-3}$ is feasible. The
efficiency of the novel ion source for laboratory astrophysics significantly
exceeds that of other existing warm and superconducting EBITs. A problem of the
K-shell electron ionization of heavy and superheavy elements is also discussed.
