The ISOLDE facility

Abstract

The ISOLDE facility has undergone numerous changes over the last 17 years driven by both the physics and technical community with a common goal to improve on beam variety, beam quality and safety. Improvements have been made in civil engineering and operational equipment while continuing developments aim to ensure operations following a potential increase in primary beam intensity and energy. This paper outlines the principal technical changes incurred at ISOLDE by building on a similar publication of the facility upgrades by Kugler (2000 Hyperfine Interact. 129 23–42). It also provides an insight into future perspectives through a brief summary issues addressed in the HIE-ISOLDE design study Catherall et al (2013 Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B 317 204–207).

α -decay branching ratio of Pt180

“…1. An isotopically pure ion beam of 180 Hg was produced at the ISOLDE facility [13,14] through spallation reactions induced by a 1.4-GeV proton beam impinged upon a molten lead target, followed by a three-step, resonance laser ionization (5) keV is from Ref. [6].…”

A Fast Universal Kinematic Fitting Code for Low-Energy Nuclear Physics: FUNKI_FIT

“…To illustrate the power of kinematic fitting, consider the simple example of measuring the energies of three particles (E 1 , E 2 , E 3 ) MeV. To simplify the problem, their true values for each measurement are fixed as (4,9,16) MeV. However, the parameters are measured with a resolution (σ 1 , σ 2 , σ 3 ) = (0.5, 1, 1) MeV.…”

“…These uncertainties can arise from the beam of particles itself. Modern, radioactive beam experiments can provide intense beams of radioactive isotopes in order to study the behaviour of nuclei far from stability [4,5]. However, the composition of the beam, its energy and spatial location are sometimes poorly constrained.…”

Improved experimental determination of the branching ratio for β-delayed α decay of 16N

“…The α-decay branching ratio was first determined to have a value of 1.20(5) × 10 −5 by Kaufmann et al [9]. In order to close some of the gaps in our knowledge about the β decay of 16 N, we have studied the decay at ISOLDE [3]. In this study, performed in May 2016, a 30 keV beam of 14 N 16 N + molecular ions was delivered to the ISOLDE Decay Station (IDS) [12] at an average rate of ∼ 2 × 10 4 s −1 for a total of 32 hours.…”

“…This requires precise measurements of the branching ratio to the 7.12 MeV level, the branching ratio for α emission, and the shape of the α spectrum. Here, we bring the preliminary results of a new experimental study of the β decay of 16 N recently performed at the ISOLDE facility [3] with the aim of obtaining precise values for the branching ratios. …”