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3. Research Infrastructures and Networking
The CERN Research Board has approved the project
HIE-ISOLDE, on account of its scientifi c potential as
well as its several unique features for ISOL radioactive
beam production. At the horizon of 2014, the community
may plan for experiments with the very large variety of
beams available today with increased energy and intensity.
Along with SPIRAL2 at GANIL, France and SPES
at INFN-LNL, Italy, HIE-ISOLDE will be a member of the
European network of advanced ISOL radioactive beam
facilities paving the way for the ultimate European ISOL
facility EURISOL.
View of the HIE-ISOLDE LINAC.
staged fashion. The first stage will boost the energy to
6A MeV where the Coulomb excitation cross sections are
strongly increased with respect to the current 3A MeV
and many transfer reaction channels will be opened. In
the second stage, additional cryo-modules will be added
to bring the energy up to 10A MeV for all nuclides with
A/Q = 4.5 and up to 14A MeV for A/Q = 3. This will offer
ideal conditions for transfer reactions over the whole
periodic table, particularly the heavy elements uniquely
produced at ISOLDE. Moreover, the provision of low beta
superconducting cavities allows for CW operation and
the delivery of beams with energies down to 0.5A MeV for
astrophysics oriented measurements. The prototyping
of these sputtered cavities is already ongoing.
In addition, the new CERN injector LINAC 4 will provide
a major boost of the proton intensity onto the ISOLDE
target. In the framework of HIE-ISOLDE, the target areas
and ion sources are also being respectively upgraded
and optimised in order to make use of the more intense
proton beams from LINAC4 and to improve the efficiency
for ion extraction and charge breeding. This will enable
up to an order of magnitude more RIB intensity to be
delivered for many nuclides. Improved beam quality will
arise from several technological advances: the already
implemented solid state lasers equipping the RILIS ion
source and use of the recently commissioned RFQ cooler
ISCOOL together with the construction of a new high
resolution mass separator. The possibility of providing
polarised beams will also be investigated.
SPES at INFN-LNL, Legnaro, Italy
SPES is a new mid-term ISOL facility dedicated to the
production of neutron-rich beams. It is an INFN project
involving the two national laboratories, LNL and LNS and
additionally other INFN sites in Italy. The project consists
of a proton driver, a 70 MeV cyclotron with two exit ports
for a total current of 750 µA, an UC x ISOL target and ion
source, a beam transport system with high resolution
mass selection and the superconductive PIAVE-ALPI
accelerator complex in operation at LNL, which will be
used as radioactive beam re-accelerator.
A proton beam of 40 MeV and 200 µA, delivered by
the cyclotron, will impinge on an uranium carbide target
and neutron rich isotopes will be produced as fi ssion
fragments with a rate of 10**13 fission/s. The uranium
carbide targets have already been developed and represent
a technical innovation in terms of their capability
to sustain the primary beam power. The neutron rich
products will be extracted and mass separated to be reaccelerated.
In particular, the radioactive ions, extracted
in a 1 + state using different ion sources depending on the
kind of isotope, will be transported to the linear accelerator
ALPI. This part of the SPES project will benefi t
from the experience gained in LNS (Catania) with the
EXCYT project, which will be taken as a reference for
the optimisation of the various magnetic and diagnostic
elements. To fit the proper entrance parameters for
beam re-acceleration with the linac, an RFQ-cooler and
a charge breeder are planned to be installed. The design
and construction of the charge breeder will be done in
collaboration with SPIRAL2.
The re-acceleration stage with the superconductive
linac ALPI will produce high-quality beams with regard
to intensity and energy spread. the final energy interval
View of the proton cyclotron driver of the SPES radioactive beam
facility at INFN-LNL in Legnaro, Italy
46 | Perspectives of Nuclear Physics in Europe – NuPECC Long Range Plan 2010