The article describes a laser ion source torch designed on the basis of aCO2laser at Efremov Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus in collaboration with the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Ukrainian Academy of Science, Kiev. The ion extraction from the laser plasma is done by means of spherical grid electrodes. This permits to improve the efficiency several hundred times compared to the existing ion sources and to increase the ion beam correspondingly, including highly charged ions. The charge composition of the beam, the pulse frequency, and the extracted beam are determined by the operational mode of the laser. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.