Charge breeding of radioactive isotopes at the CARIBU facility with an electron beam ion source.

An Electron Beam Ion Source Charge Breeder (EBIS-CB) has been developed at Argonne National Laboratory as part of the californium rare ion breeder upgrade. For the past year, the EBIS-CB has been undergoing commissioning as part of the ATLAS accelerator complex. It has delivered both stable and radioactive beams with A/Q < 6, breeding times <30 ms, low background contamination, and charge breeding efficiencies >18% into a single charge state. The operation of this device, challenges during the commissioning phase, and future improvements will be discussed.

Off-line commissioning of EBIS and plans for its integration into ATLAS and CARIBU.

An Electron Beam Ion Source Charge Breeder (EBIS-CB) has been developed at Argonne to breed radioactive beams from the CAlifornium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade (CARIBU) facility at Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS). The EBIS-CB will replace the existing ECR charge breeder to increase the intensity and significantly improve the purity of reaccelerated radioactive ion beams. The CARIBU EBIS-CB has been successfully commissioned offline with an external singly charged cesium ion source. The performance of the EBIS fully meets the specifications to breed rare isotope beams delivered from CARIBU. The EBIS is being relocated and integrated into ATLAS and CARIBU. A long electrostatic beam transport system including two 180° bends in the vertical plane has been designed. The commissioning of the EBIS and the beam transport system in their permanent location will start at the end of this year.

Fast and efficient charge breeding of the Californium rare isotope breeder upgrade electron beam ion source.

The Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS), developed to breed Californium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade (CARIBU) radioactive beams at Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS), is being tested off-line. A unique property of the EBIS is a combination of short breeding times, high repetition rates, and a large acceptance. Overall, we have implemented many innovative features during the design and construction of the CARIBU EBIS as compared to the existing EBIS breeders. The off-line charge breeding tests are being performed using a surface ionization source that produces singly charged cesium ions. The main goal of the off-line commissioning is to demonstrate stable operation of the EBIS at a 10 Hz repetition rate and a breeding efficiency into single charge state higher than 15%. These goals have been successfully achieved and exceeded. We have measured (20% ± 0.7%) breeding efficiency into the single charge state of 28+ cesium ions with the breeding time of 28 ms. In general, the current CARIBU EBIS operational parameters can provide charge breeding of any ions in the full mass range of periodic table with high efficiency, short breeding times, and sufficiently low charge-to-mass ratio, 1/6.3 for the heaviest masses, for further acceleration in ATLAS. In this paper, we discuss the parameters of the EBIS and the charge breeding results in a pulsed injection mode with repetition rates up to 10 Hz.

Results with the electron cyclotron resonance charge breeder for the 252Cf fission source project (Californium Rare Ion Breeder Upgrade) at Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System.

The construction of the Californium Rare Ion Breeder Upgrade, a new radioactive beam facility for the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS), is nearing completion. The facility will use fission fragments from a 1 Ci (252)Cf source; thermalized and collected into a low-energy particle beam by a helium gas catcher. In order to reaccelerate these beams, an existing ATLAS electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source was redesigned to function as an ECR charge breeder. Thus far, the charge breeder has been tested with stable beams of rubidium and cesium achieving charge breeding efficiencies of 9.7% into (85)Rb(17+) and 2.9% into (133)Cs(20+).

Determination of the 8B neutrino spectrum.

We have measured the total energy of the alpha particles following the beta decay of 8B by implanting 8B into a planar silicon surface barrier detector. Calibration was performed using alpha particles following the beta decay of 20Na, similarly implanted. The alpha spectrum is used to infer the 8B neutrino spectrum which is an important input in the interpretation of experiments that detect energetic neutrinos from the Sun. The alpha spectrum reported here is in disagreement with the previous best measurement which used two detectors in coincidence.

Simultaneous acceleration of multiply charged ions through a superconducting linac.

The possibility of simultaneously accelerating particles with a range of charge-to-mass ratios ( approximately 20%) to the same energy is proposed and demonstrated for a superconducting linac. Uranium ions stripped in a foil with eight charge states have been accelerated through a portion of the ATLAS linac from 286 to 690 MeV, with 94% of the injected uranium in the accelerated beam. Emittance of the resultant beam has been measured and the energy spread was 1.3% compared to 0.4% for a single charge state. This development has immediate application to the high-intensity acceleration of heavy ions that are limited by ion-source intensities, such as the proposed Rare Isotope Accelerator Facility.