The radioactive ion beam production systems for the SPIRAL2 project

Abstract

The SPIRAL2 project, currently under construction at GANIL, will include an isotope separator on line based facility for the production and acceleration of radioactive ion beams. A superconducting linear accelerator will accelerate 5 mA deuterons up to 40 MeV and 1 mA heavy ions up to 14.5 MeV/u. These primary beams will be used to bombard both thick and thin targets. We are investigating three different techniques to produce the radioactive ion beams: (1) the neutron induced fission of uranium carbide, (2) the direct interaction of deuterons in a uranium carbide target, and (3) the interaction of a heavy ion beam with a target. All these production systems will be coupled to an ion source. Four kinds of ion sources are foreseen for the ionization of the radioactive atoms: an electron cyclotron resonance ion source, a surface ionization ion source, a forced electron beam induced arc discharge ion source, and a laser ion source depending on the characteristics of the desired radioactive ion beam in terms of intensity, efficiency, purity, etc. A presentation of the SPIRAL2 project and of the different production systems is given.

On-line ECR ion sources: Present and future

“…In this project, extreme conditions, that do not have any equivalence in other running ISOL facilities, are gathered: very high radiation level due to the break up of 200 kW of 40 MeV deuteron beam in a graphite converter, high out-gassing due to the close vicinity of a 2.3 kg UCx target, 3 months running time without possibility of manual intervention. Indeed, the target and ion source units [22] have to carefully fulfil the following requirements: to be radiation hard, reliable at least during 3 months and of course as efficient as possible. Four different kinds of sources will be used for the ionization of the radioactive atoms, depending on their chemical properties: a surface ion source, a FEBIAD ion source, a resonant laser ion source and an ECR ion source.…”

“…The stable heavy ions accelerated by the three GANIL cyclotrons in series at energies up to 95 MeV/nucleon are used to produce radioactive nuclei by projectile fragmentation in a thick graphite target. The primary beam is chosen to maximize the production of the radioactive element of interest in the target ( 36 Ar for the production of 31-35 Ar, 36 S for the production of [19][20][21][22] O or [23][24][25][26][27] Ne, 13 C for the production of 6,8 He. .…”

Monte Carlo Simulation of Heavy Nuclei Photofission at Intermediate Energies

“…Moreover, there is an increasing interest on fission products due to studies on material damage regarding nuclear reactors [8][9][10], and studies on production of intermediate mass ions source (ISOL) [11][12][13][14][15]. In this work we studied the fission process by using a Monte Carlo simulation performed with the CRISP code.…”

Tracking rare-isotope beams with microchannel plates

“…Many modern nuclear-physics facilities utilize secondary rare-isotope beams to investigate the properties of neutronrich and neutron-deficient nuclei [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Studies that employ radioactive-ion beams are crucial for understanding topics ranging from astrophysics to quantum many-body systems such as the atomic nucleus [5].…”