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To increase the beam intensity of cyclotrons used for producing radionuclides, beam loss during extraction must be reduced. Extraction efficiency is limited by the beam parameters in front of the deflector, especially angular distribution. Computer simulation of the second harmonic mode for 18 MeV protons, which is frequently used, has been carried out to understand beam behavior in a cyclotron. The extraction efficiency is determined by the width of the angular distribution of particles in the phase space plot at the deflector. An effective method to reduce the width is to shorten the bunch at injection. The simulation shows that the bunch phase length at injection must be ⩽30° to realize a 30 μA extraction beam current and satisfy the deflector heat limit of 200 W.

The \(^3\)He analyzing powers for \(p{-}^3\)He elastic scattering with the polarized \(^3\)He target have been measured at \(70~\mathrm {MeV}\). \(^3\)He polarization which was calibrated by the electron paramagnetic resonance method was achieved to \(50\%\). In the conference the data were compared with the theoretical calculations based on the modern nucleon–nucleon potentials. Large discrepancies between the theoretical calculations and the experimental data were found at the angles where the \(^3\)He analyzing power takes minimum and maximum.

A singly charged ion source (SCIS) has been designed using a newly developed three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code. The SCIS is to be used in an isotope separation on-line (ISOL) system that provides 11C ions for heavy-ion cancer therapy with simultaneous verification of the dose distribution using positron emission tomography. The SCIS uses low-energy electron beams to produce singly charged carbon ions efficiently and maintain a high vacuum in the ISOL system. Because the SCIS has to realize a production efficiency of 1% if its carbon ions are to be used in the ISOL system, a suitable design for the SCIS was investigated by using the developed PIC code to study the beam trajectories of the electrons and extracted ions. The simulation results show that hollow electron beams are produced in the designed SCIS resulting in a high effective electron current. The results also predict that the designed SCIS would realize ion-production efficiencies (IPEs) of eSCIS ≃ 6.7% for CO2+ production from CO2 gas and eSCIS ≃ 0.1% for C+ production from CH4 gas. Moreover, to examine the validity of the developed code and confirm that the SCIS was able to be designed appropriately, the space-charge-limited current of the electron gun and the total IPE obtained by adding the IPEs of each ion were compared between the experiment and the simulation.

The National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST) manages various types of ion sources for research and development in the fields of life sciences, medical and industrial applications, and fusion energy science. The QST is currently developing on electron cyclotron resonance ion sources, negative ion sources (ion sources for fusion and for tandem accelerators), ion sources for radioactive beams, laser ion sources, and miscellaneous ion sources. Its intra- and inter-institutional collaborations make QST a promising platform for future ion source technologies.

The ion-production efficiency of a newly developed singly charged ion source (SCIS) has been investigated to discuss the possibility of it being used in an isotope separation on-line system that provides 11C ions for heavy-ion cancer therapy with simultaneous verification of the irradiation field using positron emission tomography. The SCIS uses a low-energy hollow electron beam to produce singly charged carbon ions efficiently. To deliver sufficient 11C ions to the treatment room from a limited amount of 11C molecules, which are produced from a boron compound target and proton-beam irradiation via the 11B(p,n)11C reaction, the SCIS must have high ion-production efficiency. To realize this high efficiency, the SCIS was designed using a three-dimensional particle-in-cell code in previous work. With the fabricated SCIS, we performed experiments to measure the efficiency of producing CO2+ ions from nonradioactive 12CO2 molecules and C+ ions from nonradioactive 12CH4 molecules. We found that the SCIS achieved efficiencies of eC+=4×10−3 (0.4%) for C+ production and eCO2+=0.107 (10.7%) for CO2+ production.

A (11)C molecular production/separation system (CMPS) has been developed as part of an isotope separation on line system for simultaneous positron emission tomography imaging and heavy-ion cancer therapy using radioactive (11)C ion beams. In the ISOL system, (11)CH4 molecules will be produced by proton irradiation and separated from residual air impurities and impurities produced during the irradiation. The CMPS includes two cryogenic traps to separate specific molecules selectively from impurities by using vapor pressure differences among the molecular species. To investigate the fundamental performance of the CMPS, we performed separation experiments with non-radioactive (12)CH4 gases, which can simulate the chemical characteristics of (11)CH4 gases. We investigated the separation of CH4 molecules from impurities, which will be present as residual gases and are expected to be difficult to separate because the vapor pressure of air molecules is close to that of CH4. We determined the collection/separation efficiencies of the CMPS for various amounts of air impurities and found desirable operating conditions for the CMPS to be used as a molecular separation device in our ISOL system.

A fragment separator at heavy ion accelerator facilities is a versatile instrument to provide wide variety of radioactive isotope (RI) beams. However, more than 99.99% of precious Rl-ions are simply dumped in the slits or elsewhere in the fragment separator. A novel concept to restore such Rl-ions for parasitic slow Rl-beams is proposed. Installation of a laser ionization gas catcher in the vicinity of the first or second focal point of the fragment separator enables to collect dead isotopes in the slits. The design concept and expected performance are discussed. ispartof: pages:132-137 ispartof: AIP Conference Proceedings vol:1104 pages:132-137 ispartof: International Conference on Laser Probing - LAP 2008 location:Nagoya, Japan date:6 Oct - 10 Oct 2008 status: published