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The Extremely Low ENergy Antiproton (ELENA) is a compact ring that was recently installed to complement the antimatter factory at CERN. A local H$^{−}$/p source is connected to ELENA for commissioning purposes of the ring and subsequent electrostatic transfer lines toward experiments, allowing to progress with the commissioning phase also in the absence of antiprotons. The ELENA source can produce pulses of H$^{−}$, with a length of a few µs and an intensity of approximately 50 µA at 100 keV, to mimic the antiproton pulse at extraction energy. In addition, the source can deliver proton pulses, if need be. After a few years of operation, several observations have been collected that will be presented in this work. Of particular interest is the observation of a fast (about 1 MHz) intra-pulse instability for H−, which resulted in poor intensity stability of the H$^{−}$ beam injected into ELENA. Possible ways of stabilising the beam pulse have been found and will be presented. The 100 kV High Voltage (HV) insulation transformer turned out to be the most critical component of the source hardware. The original transformer suffered from insulation degradation over time and several iterations were necessary to build a reliable solution, for which details will also be presented.

This paper describes a method for reducing the energy of the cyclotron motion for charged particles in coherent beams using a nonadiabatic magnetic field. For the purpose of reducing the cyclotron motion, a local magnetic field reduction of the main guiding field should be situated in the region of the descending phase of the beam oscillation. The required local magnetic field depression can be produced with a soft iron ring or with a magnet coil. The nonadiabatic element can be positioned on the descending part of any period of the beam oscillation where the beam still remains sufficiently coherent. The effect of reducing the cyclotron motion with such nonadiabatic magnetic field is independent of the electric field of the cathode-anode gap and seems to be a universal method for the cyclotron motion control in coherent beams. Therefore, it can be used for reducing the cyclotron motion of electron beams produced with different kinds of guns with different perveances and sizes. For instance, the method is capable of creating ripple-free, laminar beams even for magneto-immersed guns positioned in a magnetic field of only a few hundred Gs and with a cathode emission current density exceeding $30\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{A}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$. It can also be applied for guns producing tubular beams, as demonstrated by our simulations. The results of computer simulations are presented, which demonstrate the capability of effective cyclotron motion control with nonadiabatic magnetic field.

Hadron therapy was first proposed in 1946 and is by now widespread throughout the world, as witnessed with the design and construction of the CNAO, HIT, PROSCAN and MedAustron treatment centres, among others. The clinical interest in hadron therapy lies in the fact that it delivers precision treatment of tumours, exploiting the characteristic shape (the Bragg peak) of the energy deposition in the tissues for charged hadrons. In particular, carbon ion therapy is found to be biologically more effective, with respect to protons, on certain types of tumours. Following an approach tested at NIRS in Japan [1], carbon ion therapy treatments based on C-12 could be combined or fully replaced with C-11 PET radioactive ions post-accelerated to the same energy. This approach allows providing a beam for treatment and, at the same time, to collect information on the 3D distributions of the implanted ions by PET imaging. The production of C-11 ion beams can be performed using two methods. A first one is based on the production using compact PET cyclotrons with 10-20 MeV protons via N-14(p,alpha)C-11 reactions following an approach developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [2]. A second route exploits spallation reactions F-19(p,X)C-11 and Na-23(p,X)C-11 on a molten fluoride salt target using the ISOL (isotope separation on-line) technique [3]. This approach can be seriously envisaged at CERN-ISOLDE following recent progresses made on C-11(+) production [4] and proven post-acceleration of pure C-10(3/6+) beams in the REX-ISOLDE linac [5]. Part of the required components is operational in radioactive ion beam facilities or commercial medical PET cyclotrons. The driver could be a 70 MeV, 1.2 mA proton commercial cyclotron, which would lead to 8.1 x 10(7) C-11(6+) per spill. This intensity is appropriate using C-11 ions alone for both imaging and treatment. Here we report on the ongoing feasibility studies of such approach, using the Monte Carlo particle transport code FLUKA [6,7] to simulate pristine Bragg Peaks of C-11, in order to compare its performance with C-12, in the context of hadron therapy. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

A low energy beamline has been designed for the TwinEBIS setup. The beamline will be used to transport ions extracted from the electron beam ion source into an accelerating radio frequency quadrupole or into secondary devices, like a time of flight-mass spectrometer, attached to the beamline via a fast three way 20o ion switchyard. Optional injection of ions from an external source into the electron beam ion source is foreseen. In this article the general layout of the beamline is presented and supported with simulations of the ion-optical matching. Furthermore, the switchyard and gridded electrostatic lenses, chosen as the main focusing elements, have been simulated to assess their impact on the beam quality and the dynamics of secondary electrons emitted by the gridded lenses. In addition, the beamline includes general diagnostic devices, including a bidirectional pepperpot beam profiler. An overview of the diagnostic elements is given.

International audience; At CERN, large hadron collider heavy ion and super proton synchrotron fixed target experiments areperformed thanks to the Heavy-ion Facility, composed of different accelerators. The starting point isLinac3, which delivers 4.2 MeV/u ion beams to the lowenergy ion ring. In 2017, Linac3 accelerated Xe instead of the most usual Pb. This article summarizes the measurements performed during the machine development time allocated to characterize the line from the source to the filtering section. A parallel effort was devoted to matching those measurements to the beam dynamics simulations, and the second part of the article highlights the results achieved in this regard. Thanks to the improved understanding of the machine critical areas, a list of possible improvements is proposed at the end.

MEDeGUN [1] is an electron gun to be used in an Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) designed to serve as C6+ source for LINAC-based 2nd generation hadron therapy facilities [2]. The latter require short pulses of at least 1*108 particles at a repetition rate of 400 Hz, which exceeds the possibilities of currently used electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRIS) and EBISes. The design of MEDeGUN is based on a combination of electrostatic and magnetic compression, which is commonly referred to as Brillouin gun. As previous devices have shown, it is difficult to achieve the design goals in this configuration due to the high sensitivity of the electron beam to any field imperfection. Therefore, the number of interfaces between the cathode, Wehnelt and anode electrodes have been reduced to only two in our design. In spring 2017, the MEDeGUN assembly was installed at the TwinEBIS test bench at CERN [3]. We have since then propagated an electron beam of more than 1 A at 10 keV electron energy through the 2T solenoid with losses of less than 1 mA. We will here present the commissioning results and discuss them with respect to the design goals.

In this paper we report on our results from the design study of an advanced Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) based Charge Breeder (ECB). The ECB should fulfill the requirements of the HIE-ISOLDE upgrade, and if possible be adapted for ion injection into TSR@ISOLDE, as well as serve as an early prototype of a future EURISOL ECB. Fulfilling the HIE-ISOLDE/TSR@ISOLDE specifications requires simultaneous increase in electron beam energy, current and current density in order to provide the requested beams with proper charge state, high intensity and with a specified pulse repetition rate. We have carried out a study on the technical requirements of the ECB. The obtained parameters were optimized to comply with technical limitations arising from the electron beam technology and plasma physics in an ECB.

International audience; The effect of double frequency heating on the performance of the CERN GTS-LHC 14.5 GHz ElectronCyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion source in afterglow mode is reported. The source of the secondary microwave frequency was operated both in pulsed and continuous wave (CW) modes within the range of 12–18 GHz. The results demonstrate that the addition of the secondary frequency can significantly impact the extracted beam currents and the temporal stability of the beam during the afterglow discharge. For example, up to a factor of 2.6 increase was achieved for 208Pb35+ and a factor of 3.1 for 208Pb37+ compared to single frequency afterglow currents. It is shown that these effects are dependent on the choice of the secondary frequency with respect to the primary one and on the temporal synchronization between the two microwave sources. Overall, the results provide new insight into the afterglow discharge supporting the prevailing understanding of the physical processes behind the phenomenon.

The neutron-deficient ${}^{\mathrm{196,198}}$Pb isotopes have been studied in Coulomb-excitation experiments employing the Miniball γ-ray spectrometer and radioactive ion beams from the REX-ISOLDE post-accelerator at CERN. The reduced transition probabilities of the first excited 2+ states in 196Pb and 198Pb nuclei have been measured for the first time. Values of $B(E2)={18.2}_{-4.1}^{+4.8}$ W.u. and $B(E2)={13.1}_{-3.5}^{+4.9}$ W.u., were obtained, respectively. The experiment sheds light on the development of collectivity when moving from the regime governed by the generalised seniority scheme to a region, where intruding structures, associated with different deformed shapes, start to come down in energy and approach the spherical ground state. journal_title: Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics article_type: paper article_title: Collectivity in ${}^{\mathrm{196,198}}$Pb isotopes probed in Coulomb-excitation experiments at REX-ISOLDE copyright_information: © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd date_received: 2016-10-31 date_accepted: 2017-03-17 date_epub: 2017-05-03 ispartof: Journal of Physics G, Nuclear and Particle Physics vol:44 issue:6 status: published

In this work we present our progress in the design study of a new Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) to be installed as a charge breeder for reacceleration of rare ions at ISOLDE. The work is triggered by the HIE-ISOLDE upgrade [1] and the planned TSR@ISOLDE project [2] . To fulfill the requests of the user community the new EBIS should reach an electron beam density of 104 A/cm2 at electron energies up to 150 keV and, provide UHV environment and ion cooling in the breeding region to ensure confinement of the ions long enough to reach the requested charge states. We report on the established design parameters and first prototyping steps towards production and testing of suitable equipment.

The structure of neutron-rich 96,98Sr nuclei was investigated by low-energy safe Coulomb excitation of radioactive beams at the REX-ISOLDE facility, CERN, with the MINIBALL spectrometer. A rich set of transitional and diagonal E2 matrix elements, including those for non-yrast structures, has been extracted from the differential Coulomb-excitation cross sections. The results support the scenario of a shape transition at N = 60, giving rise to the coexistence of a highly deformed prolate and a spherical configuration in 98Sr, and are compared to predictions from several theoretical calculations. The experimental data suggest a significant contribution of the triaxal degree of freedom in the ground state of both isotopes. In addition, experimental information on low-lying states in 98Rb has been obtained.

Acta physica Polonica / B 47(3), 627 - 636(2016). doi:10.5506/APhysPolB.47.627, Published by Inst. of Physics, Jagellonian Univ., Cracow

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. It is planned to install the heavy-ion, low-energy ring TSR, currently at the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, at the HIE-ISOLDE facility in CERN, Geneva. Such a facility will provide a capability for experiments with stored, cooled secondary beams that is rich and varied, spanning from studies of nuclear ground-state properties and reaction studies of astrophysical relevance, to investigations with highly-charged ions and pure isomeric beams. In addition to experiments performed using beams recirculating within the ring, the cooled beams can be extracted and exploited by external spectrometers for high-precision measurements. The capabilities of the ring facility as well as some physics cases will be presented, together with a brief report on the status of the project. ispartof: Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research B vol:376 pages:270-274 ispartof: location:Grand Rapids: MI status: published

We have investigated a commercially available polymer for its suitability as a solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD). We identified that polymer to be polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and found that it has a higher detection threshold compared to many other widely used SSNTDs which makes this detector particularly suitable for rare event search in cosmic rays as it eliminates the dominant low Z background. Systematic studies were carried out to determine its charge response which is essential before any new material can be used as an SSNTD. In this paper we describe the charge response of PET to 129 Xe, 78 Kr and 49 Ti ions from the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN, present the calibration curve for PET and characterize it as a nuclear track detector.

At the radioactive ion-beam facility REX-ISOLDE more than 60 different types of radionuclide ions have been post-accelerated to energies up to 3.15 MeV/u within the last years. The transmission efficiency of the system has continually increased with gained operation experience. Apart from striving for the highest possible intensity, the beam purity is also of crucial importance for many experiments. For this reason isobaric contaminant suppression in the low energy stage of REX-ISOLDE has been investigated. Until now the Penning trap system REXTRAP was used solely as a device for bunching the incoming quasi-continuous radioactive ion-beam from ISOLDE and reducing the emittance for efficient injection into the REXEBIS charge breeder. The possibility of operating REXTRAP in a mass-resolving mode and injecting bunched beams from the recently installed radiofrequency quadrupole cooler and buncher ISCOOL has been studied in detail. Results related to transmission efficiency,achieved mass-resolving power, and limitations due to space-charge effects are presented.

The low-lying states in the odd-odd and unstable isotopes 106, 108In have been Coulomb excited from the ground state and the first excited isomeric state at the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN. With the additional data provided here the $ \pi$ g 9/2 -1 ⊗ $ \nu$ d 5/2 and $ \pi$ g 9/2 -1 ⊗ $ \nu$ g 7/2 multiplets have been re-analyzed and are modified compared to previous results. The observed $ \gamma$ -ray de-excitation patterns were interpreted within a shell model calculation based on a realistic effective interaction. The agreement between theory and experiment is satisfactory and the calculations reproduce the observed differences in the excitation pattern of the two isotopes. The calculations exclude a 6+ ground state in 106In . This is in agreement with the conclusions drawn using other techniques. Furthermore, based on the experimental results, it is also concluded that the ordering of the isomeric and ground state in 108In is inverted compared to the shell model prediction. Limits on B(E2) values have been extracted where possible. A previously unknown low-lying state at 367keV in 106In is also reported.

The transformation of radioactive ions from 1 + to n + in the low-energy stage of a post-accelerator – also called charge breeding, has become a mature technique. Several machines using the method are in operation or under construction. This paper will present and evaluate on-line and off-line results from two different breeder types, the EBIS and the ECRIS-based systems. Notable on-line results, in terms of versatility, efficiency and beam purity among other things, have been achieved with the trap-EBIS charge breeding system for REX-ISOLDE, a post-accelerator operational since 2001. These will be compared with breeding results of stable and radioactive beams obtained with ECRIS at a number of facilities using or developing ECRIS breeders. Finally an outlook will be given of the predicted evolution of the charge breeders and how they can meet the requirements of future radioactive beam facilities.

The ISOLDE charge breeder and post-accelerator REX has been operational for more than 5 years and is now routinely delivering beams to nuclear physics experiments. An overview of the present performances of the machine and a number of recent developments and tests of beam purification techniques are presented in this paper.

ThuM07; International audience; The present paper summarizes the results obtained from the past few years in the framework ofthe Enhanced Multi-Ionization of short-Lived Isotopes for Eurisol (EMILIE) project. The EMILIEproject aims at improving the charge breeding techniques with both Electron Cyclotron ResonanceIon Sources (ECRIS) and Electron Beam Ion Sources (EBISs) for European Radioactive Ion Beam(RIB) facilities. Within EMILIE, an original technique for debunching the beam from EBIS chargebreeders is being developed, for making an optimal use of the capabilities of CW post-acceleratorsof the future facilities. Such a debunching technique should eventually resolve duty cycle andtime structure issues which presently complicate the data-acquisition of experiments. The resultsof the first tests of this technique are reported here. In comparison with charge breeding withan EBIS, the ECRIS technique had lower performance in efficiency and attainable charge statefor metallic ion beams and also suffered from issues related to beam contamination. In recentyears, improvements have been made which significantly reduce the differences between the twotechniques, making ECRIS charge breeding more attractive especially for CW machines producingintense beams. Upgraded versions of the Phoenix charge breeder, originally developed byLPSC, will be used at SPES and GANIL/SPIRAL. These two charge breeders have benefited fromstudies undertaken within EMILIE, which are also briefly summarized here.

Background: Shape coexistence in heavy nuclei poses a strong challenge to state-of-the-art nuclear models, where several competing shape minima are found close to the ground state. A classic region for investigating this phenomenon is in the region around Z=82 and the neutron midshell at N=104. Purpose: Evidence for shape coexistence has been inferred from α-decay measurements, laser spectroscopy, and in-beam measurements. While the latter allow the pattern of excited states and rotational band structures to be mapped out, a detailed understanding of shape coexistence can only come from measurements of electromagnetic matrix elements. Method: Secondary, radioactive ion beams of Rn202 and Rn204 were studied by means of low-energy Coulomb excitation at the REX-ISOLDE in CERN. Results: The electric-quadrupole (E2) matrix element connecting the ground state and first excited 21+ state was extracted for both Rn202 and Rn204, corresponding to B(E2;21+→01+)=29-8+8 and 43-12+17 W.u. respectively. Additionally, E2 matrix elements connecting the 21+ state with the 41+ and 22+ states were determined in Rn202. No excited 0+ states were observed in the current data set, possibly owing to a limited population of second-order processes at the currently available beam energies. Conclusions: The results are discussed in terms of collectivity and the deformation of both nuclei studied is deduced to be weak, as expected from the low-lying level-energy schemes. Comparisons are also made to state-of-the-art beyond-mean-field model calculations and the magnitude of the transitional quadrupole moments are well reproduced., 0, SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

It was shown that the evolution of the $B(E2;{2}_{1}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{0}_{1}^{+})$ values in $N$ = 80 isotones from Te to Nd is affected by the underlying subshell structure. This manifests itself in the observation of the local suppression of the $B(E2)$ value at $Z=58$ with respect to the neighboring nuclei $^{136}\mathrm{Ba}$ and $^{140}\mathrm{Nd}$. To investigate this shell sensitivity toward the $Z=64$ subshell gap, the $B(E2;{2}_{1}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{0}_{1}^{+})$ value of the unstable nucleus $^{142}\mathrm{Sm}$ was measured utilizing the projectile Coulomb excitation technique. The radioactive ion beam (RIB) experiment was performed at the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN. The $B(E2)$ value of $32\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(4)\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{W}.\mathrm{u}.$ reflects the impact of the $\ensuremath{\pi}(1{g}_{7/2}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}2{d}_{5/2})$ subshell closure at $Z=64$ with respect to a linear scaling of collectivity with valence proton number.

Background: Shell-model calculations crucially depend on the residual interaction used to approximate the nucleon-nucleon interaction. Recent improvements to the empirical universal $sd$ interaction (USD) describing nuclei within the $sd$ shell yielded two new interactions---USDA and USDB---causing changes in the theoretical description of these nuclei.Purpose: Transition matrix elements between excited states provide an excellent probe to examine the underlying shell structure. These observables provide a stringent test for the newly derived interactions. The nucleus $^{26}\mathrm{Na}$ with 7 valence neutrons and 3 valence protons outside the doubly-magic ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ core is used as a test case.Method: A radioactive beam experiment with $^{26}\mathrm{Na}$ (${T}_{1/2}=1,07s$) was performed at the REX-ISOLDE facility (CERN) using Coulomb excitation at safe energies below the Coulomb barrier. Scattered particles were detected with an annular Si detector in coincidence with $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ rays observed by the segmented MINIBALL array. Coulomb excitation cross sections of the beam have been obtained by normalization to the well known Coulomb excitation cross sections of the $^{104}\mathrm{Pd}$ target.Results: The observation of three $\ensuremath{\gamma}$-ray transitions in $^{26}\mathrm{Na}$ together with available spectroscopic data allows us to determine $E2$- and $M1$-transitional matrix elements. Results are compared to theoretical predictions.Conclusion: The improved theoretical description of $^{26}\mathrm{Na}$ could be validated. Remaining discrepancies between experimental data and theoretical predictions indicate the need for future experiments and possibly further theoretical improvements.

Sub-barrier Coulomb-excitation was performed on a mixed beam of $^{62}$Mn and $^{62}$Fe, following in-trap $\beta^{-}$ decay of $^{62}$Mn at REX-ISOLDE, CERN. The trapping and charge breeding times were varied in order to alter the composition of the beam, which was measured by means of an ionisation chamber at the zero-angle position of the Miniball array. A new transition was observed at 418~keV, which has been tentatively associated to a $(2^{+},3^{+})\rightarrow1^{+}_{g.s.}$ transition. This fixes the relative positions of the $\beta$-decaying $4^{+}$ and $1^{+}$ states in $^{62}$Mn for the first time. Population of the $2^{+}_{1}$ state was observed in $^{62}$Fe and the cross-section determined by normalisation to the $^{109}$Ag target excitation, confirming the $B(E2)$ value measured in recoil-distance lifetime experiments., Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures

Coulomb-excitation experiments are performed with postaccelerated beams of neutron-deficient Po196,198,200,202 isotopes at the REX-ISOLDE facility. A set of matrix elements, coupling the low-lying states in these isotopes, is extracted. In the two heaviest isotopes, Po200,202, the transitional and diagonal matrix elements of the 2+1 state are determined. In Po196,198 multistep Coulomb excitation is observed, populating the 4+1,0+2, and 2+2 states. The experimental results are compared to the results from the measurement of mean-square charge radii in polonium isotopes, confirming the onset of deformation from Po196 onwards. Three model descriptions are used to compare to the data. Calculations with the beyond-mean-field model, the interacting boson model, and the general Bohr Hamiltonian model show partial agreement with the experimental data. Finally, calculations with a phenomenological two-level mixing model hint at the mixing of a spherical structure with a weakly deformed rotational structure., We acknowledge the support of the ISOLDE Collaboration and technical teams and, especially, the support of RILIS and REX. This work was supported by FWO-Vlaanderen (Belgium), by GOA/2010/010 (BOF KU Leuven), by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BriX network P7/12), by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme through I3-ENSAR (Contract No. RII3-CT-2010-262010), by the German BMBF under Contract Nos. 05P12PKFNE, 06DA9036I 05P12RDCIA, and 05P12RDCIB, by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, by the Spanish MINECO under Project No. FIS2011-28738-C02-02, by Narodowe Centrum Nauki (Polish Center for Scientific Research) Grant No. UMO-2013/10/M/ST2/00427, by the Academy of Finland (Contract No. 131665), and by the European Commission through the Marie Curie Actions call PIEFGA-2008-219174 (J.P.).

The one-neutron transfer reaction Li-9 + H-2 -> Li-8 + t has been investigated in an inverse kinematics experiment by bombarding a deuterated polypropylene target with a 2.36 MeV/u Li-9 beam from the post-accelerator REX-ISOLDE at CERN. Excitation energies in Li-8 as well as angular distributions of the tritons were obtained and spectroscopic factors deduced. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The production of light noble gas radioisotopes with high ionization potentials has been hampered by modest ionization efficiencies for standard plasma ion-sources. However, the decay losses are minimal as the lingering time of light noble gases within plasma ion-sources is negligible when compared to its diffusion out of the target material. Previous singly charged ECRIS have shown a higher efficiency but also a lingering time of the order of 1 s and a total weight that prevents remote handling by the ISOLDE robot. The compact MINIMONO efficiently addressed the lingering time and weight issues. In addition, the MINIMONO maintained the high off-line ionization efficiency for light noble gases. This paper describes a standard ISOLDE target unit equipped with a MINIMONO ion-source and the first tests. The ion-source has been tested off-line and equipped with a CaO target for on-line tests. Valuable information was gained about high current (100-500 muA) transport through the ISOLDE mass separators designed for

4 pages, 4 figures.-- Issue title: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Clustering Aspects of Nuclear Structure and Dynamics (Nara, Japan, Nov 24-29, 2003)., The particle unbound nucleus Li-10 has been investigated at the newly constructed post-accelerator REX-ISOLDE at CERN via the Li-9 +d --> Li-10 +p reaction at 2.36 MeV/u. We present here the preliminary analysis of our first data from REX-ISOLDE.

Radioactive ion beams (RIBs) are an important tool for experiments at the foremost frontier of nuclear physics. The quasi-continuous radioactive beams from target ion sources of RIB-facilities have to be accelerated to energies at and beyond the Coulomb barrier. An efficient acceleration requires a suitable A/q of the ions determined by the accelerator design, which can be reached via the stripping method or by using a charge state breeder like the REX-ISOLDE system. In order to get comparable efficiencies for a charge state breeder with the stripping scheme, the breeding efficiency in one charge state has to be optimized by narrowing the charge state distribution. In addition good beam quality and thus small emittances are required to achieve best transmission in the following accelerator, which is mandatory for high intensity RIBs. For EBIS/T devices the maximum intensity of the radioactive ion beam is a critical issue, and high current EBIS/T devices will be necessary to deal with intensities of second generation RIB facilities.

The numerous forthcoming post-accelerators for radioactive ions produced with the isotope separator on-line (ISOL) technique all have a need for an efficient method to accelerate the precious primary ions. By including an Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) as a charge breeder after the radioactive ion production stage, a short and compact linear accelerator can be employed as a result of the increased ion charge-to-mass ratio. In view of the constraints on a post-accelerator for radioactive beams, an EBIS appears to be an attractive solution. It is independent of the element injected, and an overall efficiency as high as 30% for the peak charge state can be attained. The mean charge state of the extracted ion beam is easily varied by changing the breeding time and the beam has excellent properties (time structure and emittance) for LINAC injection. Furthermore, the extraction of a bunched beam improves the signal-to-noise ratio for low-intensity beams and the UHV inside the source permits the mass separation of very weak radioactive beams from the residual gas contamination. With a high electron-beam density, the breeding time can be kept short, so decay losses are minimized. To obtain a high efficiency for a charge breeding EBIS, it is advantageous if the beam from the ISOL system is bunched and has its emittance reduced before injection. To achieve this a Penning trap can be introduced in front of the EBIS. The space-charge limit of the Penning trap restricts the number of ions per bunch to a couple of orders of magnitude lower than the constraint set by the EBIS. A positive side effect though, is that a mass selection can take place inside the trap. In this article the above listed features will be discussed. As an example, the charge breeding system for the REX-ISOLDE post-accelerator will be introduced. In addition, future possible developments of an EBIS leading to shorter breeding times, the acceptance of a continuous beam, and an increased number of charge-bred ions, will be discussed.

We report on the development of the HEC2 (High Energy Compression and Current) charge breeder, a possible high performance successor to REXEBIS at ISOLDE. The new breeder would match the performance of the HIE-ISOLDE linac upgrade and make full use of the possible installation of a storage ring at ISOLDE (the TSR@ISOLDE initiative [1]). Dictated by ion beam acceptance and capacity requirements, the breeder features a 2-3.5 A electron beam. In many cases very high charge states, including bare ions up to Z=70 and Li/Na-like up to Z=92 could be requested for experiments in the storage ring, therefore, electron beam energies up to 150 keV are required. The electron-beam current density needed for producing ions with such high charge states at an injection rate into TSR of 0.5-1 Hz is between 10 and 20 kA/cm2, which agrees with the current density needed to produce A/q, Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, EBIST14 conference paper

The isotopes 122,124,126Cd were studied in a “safe” Coulomb-excitation experiment at the radioactive ion-beam facility REX-ISOLDE at CERN. The reduced transition probabilities B(E2; 0+g.s. →2+1) and limits for the quadrupole moments of the first 2+ excited states in the three isotopes were determined. The onset of collectivity in the vicinity of theZ=50 andN=82 shell closures is discussed by comparison with shell model and beyond mean-field calculations. ispartof: Physical Review C, Nuclear Physics vol:89 issue:1 pages:1-10 status: published

Seidlitz, M., et all ; 10 pags. ; 9 figs. ; 1 tab. ; PACS number(s): 21.60.Cs, 23.20.Js, 25.70.De, 29.38.Gj, Nuclear shell evolution in neutron-rich Na nuclei around N=20 was studied by determining reduced transition probabilities, i.e., B(E2) and B(M1) values, in order to map the border of the island of inversion. To this end Coulomb-excitation experiments, employing radioactive 29,30Na beams with a final beam energy of 2.85 MeV/nucleon, were performed at REX-ISOLDE, CERN. De-excitation γ rays were detected by the MINIBALL γ-ray spectrometer in coincidence with scattered particles in a segmented Si detector. Transition probabilities to excited states were deduced. The measured B(E2) values agree well with shell-model predictions, supporting the idea that in the Na isotopic chain the ground-state wave function contains significant intruder admixture already at N=18, with N=19 having an almost pure two-particle-two-hole deformed ground-state configuration. © 2014 American Physical Society., This work has been supported by the German BMBF under Contracts No. 06K-167, No. 06KY205I, No. 06DA9036I, No. 06MT9156, No. 05P09PKCI5, No. 05P12PKFNE, No. 05P12RDCIA, and No. 05P12RDCIB, by the FWOVlaanderen (Belgium), by the IAP Belgian Science Policy (BriX network (P7/12)), by the UK Science and Technology Funding Council, by the EUROpean Nuclear Structure Integrated Infrastructure Initiative (EURONS, RII3-CT-2004- 506065), and by the European Nuclear Science and Applications Research (ENSAR) under Project No. 262010.

In β-decay experiments on 9C at CERN/ISOLDE the β-strength was determined to the ground state, the 12.2 MeV excited state and the Isobaric Analog State (IAS) at 14.655 MeV in 9B. A large β-strength asymmetry is deduced for the mirror transitions of 9C and 9Li to states around 12 MeV excitation energy. A satisfactory description of the three-body decay from a narrow energy region around the 12.2 MeV resonance is obtained within a sequential model involving the ground and first-excited states of 5Li and 8Be. From the study of angular correlations the spin of the 12.2 MeV state is determined as 5/2−. For the first time the population of the IAS is observed in β-decay and new information on the decay of this state is obtained. The advantages of a closely packed, highly segmented detector setup are demonstrated.

The inelastic component of the key astrophysical resonance ( 1 − , E x = 6.15 MeV ) in the 14 O( α ,p) 17 F reaction has been studied by using the resonant scattering of 17 F+ p . The experiment was done at REX-ISOLDE CERN with the Miniball setup. The thick target method in inverse kinematics was utilized in the present experiment where a 44.2 MeV 17 F beam bombarded a ∼ 40 μ m thick (CH 2 ) n target. The inelastic scattering protons in coincidence with the de-excited 495 keV γ rays have been clearly seen and they are from the inelastic branch to the first excited state in 17 F following decay of the 1 − resonance in 18 Ne. Some preliminary results are reported.

International audience; The tilted-foils nuclear-spin polarization method has been evaluated using the REX-ISOLDE linear accelerator at the ISOLDE facility, CERN. A beam of Li-8 delivered with an energy of 300 keV/u traversed through one Mylar foil to degrade the beam energy to 200 keV/u and consequently through 10 thin diamond-like carbon foils to polarize the nuclear spin. The attained nuclear spin polarization of 3.6 +/- 0.3% was measured with a beta-NMR setup. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We have measured the beta-decay of Ar-31 with a high granularity setup sensitive to multiparticle decay branches. Two-proton emission is observed from the isobaric analog state in Cl-31 to the four lowest states in P-29 and furthermore from a large number of states fed in Gamow-Teller transitions. The mechanism of two-proton emission is studied via energy and angular correlations between the two protons. In all cases the mechanism is found to be sequential yielding information about states in S-30 up to 8 MeV excitation energy. Improved data on the beta-delayed one-proton branches together with the two-proton data provide precise information about the beta-strength distribution up to 15 MeV excitation energy.

The Radioactive Beam Experiment REX-ISOLDE [1-3] is a pilot experiment at ISOLDE (CERN) testing the new concept of post acceleration of radioactive ion beams by using charge breeding of the ions in a high charge state ion source and the efficient acceleration of the highly charged ions in a short LINAC using modern ion accelerator structures. In order to prepare the ions for the experiments singly charged radioactive ions from the on-line mass separator ISOLDE will be cooled and bunched in a Penning trap, charge bred in an electron beam ion source (EBIS) and finally accelerated in the LINAC. The LINAC consists of a radiofrequency quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator, which accelerates the ions up to 0.3 MeV/u, an interdigital H-type (IH) structure with a final energy between 1.1 and 1.2 MeV/u and three seven gap resonators, which allow the variation of the final energy. With an energy of the radioactive beams between 0.8 MeV/u and 2.2 MeV/u a wide range of experiments in the field of nuclear spectroscopy, astrophysics and solid state physics will be addressed by REX-ISOLDE.

The beta-delayed proton emission from the lightest Ar-isotopes has been recorded with a high-granularity, large solid-angle Si-detector set-up. Proton energy shifts due to beta-recoil have been measured. We demonstrate how this allows the spin of 31 Ar to be determined as 5/2. The method can be applied at decay rates as low as 1 s −1 .

We report on "safe" Coulomb excitation of neutron-rich (138,140,142) Xe nuclei. The radioactive nuclei have been produced by ISOLDE at CERN and post-accelerated by the REX-ISOLDE facility. The gamma-rays emitted by the decay of excited states have been detected by the MINIBALL array. Recent results are presented.

REX-ISOLDE is the planned radioactive beam experiment at ISOLDE/CERN for the study of neutron rich nuclei (N=20, N=28) (Habs et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B 126 (1997) 218). Radioactive 1+ ions are delivered by the on-line mass separator ISOLDE and are accelerated to 2.2 MeV/u. The radioactive ions coming from ISOLDE are first accumulated, bunched and cooled in a Penning trap. Then, in an electron beam ion source (EBIS) charge multiplication takes place up to a charge-to-mass ratio of 1/4.5. Finally, the highly charged ions are accelerated in a LINAC. The charge breeding in the EBIS allows the very efficient acceleration in the LINAC. The present paper summarizes the preliminary design study of the electron beam optics of the REX-ISOLDE EBIS. 2

The bound states of Be-12 have been studied through a Be-11(d, p) Be-12 transfer reaction experiment in inverse kinematics. A 2.8 MeV/u beam of Be-11 was produced using the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN. The outgoing protons were detected with the T-REX silicon detector array. The MINIBALL germanium array was used to detect gamma rays from the excited states in Be-12. The gamma-ray detection enabled a clear identification of the four known bound states in Be-12, and each of the states has been studied individually. Differential cross sections over a large angular range have been extracted. Spectroscopic factors for each of the states have been determined from distorted wave Born approximation (DWBA) calculations and have been compared to previous experimental and theoretical results.

) transition strengths [1] and thenumber of nucleons in the valence shell. The global behaviorof these quantities between the major shells as a function ofthe nucleon number is well understood in the frameworks ofboth collective and microscopic models. One could expect thatthese general trends in the collective properties between themajorshellsaremodulated bythesubshellstructure.However,it is usually thought that the pairing correlations with anenergy scale of about 2 MeV, smear out and dissolve thesubshell structure as long as the separation energies betweenthe subshells are only about a few hundred keV.The recently observed evolution of the isovectorquadrupole-collective valence-shell excitations in the

The radioactive isotope 107In was studied using sub-barrier Coulomb excitation at the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN. Two γ rays were observed during the experiment, corresponding to the low-lying 11/2+ and 3/2− states. The reduced transition probability of the 11/2+ state was determined with the semiclassical Coulomb excitation code GOSIA2. The result is discussed in comparison to large-scale shell-model calculations, previous unified-model calculations, and earlier Coulomb excitation measurements in the odd-mass In isotopes. ispartof: Physical Review C, Nuclear Physics vol:87 issue:1 status: published

The Miniball germanium detector array has been operational at the REX (Radioactive ion beam EXperiment) post accelerator at the Isotope Separator On-Line facility ISOLDE at CERN since 2001. During the last decade, a series of successful Coulomb excitation and transfer reaction studies have been performed with this array, utilizing the unique and high-quality radioactive ion beams which are available at ISOLDE. In this article, an overview is given of the technical details of the full Miniball setup, including a description of the γ-ray and particle detectors, beam monitoring devices and methods to deal with beam contamination. The specific timing properties of the REX-ISOLDE facility are highlighted to indicate the sensitivity that can be achieved with the full Miniball setup. The article is finalized with a summary of some physics highlights at REX-ISOLDE and the utilization of the Miniball germanium detectors at other facilities. © The Author(s) 2013. ispartof: European Physical Journal A, Hadrons and Nuclei vol:49 issue:3 pages:1-32 status: published

We report on the study of excited states in 92,94,96Kr populated via projectile Coulomb excitation at safe energies. The radioactive ion beams at energies of 2.85 MeV/u were delivered by the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN and impinged on self-supporting 194,196Pt targets. The emitted γ -rays were detected by the Miniball detector-array. A detailed description of the experimental techniques used for extracting diagonal and transitional matrix elements and of the theoretical framework is given. The present experiment reveals the moderate evolution of the collective structure in the considered neutron-rich Kr isotopic chain, which is supported by the interacting boson model combined with the self-consistent mean-field method using a microscopic Gogny energy-density functional. The theory also suggests possible shape coexistence in the exotic nucleus 96Kr. ispartof: Nuclear Physics A vol:899 pages:1-28 status: published

There is strong circumstantial evidence that certain heavy, unstable atomic nuclei are ‘octupole deformed’, that is, distorted into a pear shape. This contrasts with the more prevalent rugby-ball shape of nuclei with reflection-symmetric, quadrupole deformations. The elusive octupole deformed nuclei are of importance for nuclear structure theory, and also in searches for physics beyond the standard model; any measurable electric-dipole moment (a signature of the latter) is expected to be amplified in such nuclei. Here we determine electric octupole transition strengths (a direct measure of octupole correlations) for short-lived isotopes of radon and radium. Coulomb excitation experiments were performed using accelerated beams of heavy, radioactive ions. Our data on 220Rn and 224Ra show clear evidence for stronger octupole deformation in the latter. The results enable discrimination between differing theoretical approaches to octupole correlations, and help to constrain suitable candidates for experimental studies of atomic electric-dipole moments that might reveal extensions to the standard model. An experimental study of certain short-lived isotopes of radon and radium has found clear octupole deformation in the nuclei of the latter — that is, these nuclei are pear-shaped; the results enable discrimination between differing theoretical approaches to octupole correlations. The atomic nucleus is a many-body quantum system with a shape determined by the number of nucleons that it contains and the interactions between them. Most of the several thousand known stable and radioactive atomic nuclei, with differing numbers of protons and neutrons, are spherical or rugby-ball shaped. But there is circumstantial evidence that some heavy, unstable nuclides are distorted into a pear shape through the phenomenon of octupole deformation. Samples of these rare atomic species can be accelerated to 8% of the speed of light in the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN, and now Coulomb excitation experiments on beams of the short-lived isotopes radium-224 and radon-220 have demonstrated clear octupole deformation in the former. The results make it possible to discriminate between the various theoretical models of octupole-deformed nuclei, and are also relevant to the pursuit of physics beyond the Standard Model.