Advances in radioactive beam facilities have significantly increased capabilities for studying exotic nuclei. However, reaccelerated radioactive beams are rarely isotopically pure and necessitate equipment to monitor beam composition and to detect and identify recoiling reaction products. TRIFIC, the TRIUMF Fast Ion Counter (A. Chester, $et\,al.$, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res., Sect. A, 930,...
The combination of continuous wave 5 mA proton or deuteron 40 MeV beams on a unique thick GaIn liquid jet target [1] will generate a high-energy neutron rate of more than $10^{15}$ neutrons per second at the Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF), currently under construction in Yavne, Israel [2].
We are currently designing SARONA – SARaf exotic Nuclide fAcility, where the...
The IMPACT (Isotope and Muon Production using Advanced Cyclotron and Target technologies) initiative is a two-fold upgrade project envisaged for the HIPA (High Intensity Proton Accelerator) machine at PSI. As part of IMPACT, the TATTOOS (Targeted Alpha Tumour Therapy and Other Oncological Solutions) facility is being developed in collaboration with the University of Zurich (UZH), and the...
High-fluence isotope implantation using magnetic mass separation has become a critical technique across various research fields. For example, in medical isotope production, one of the key research areas is the purification of these radionuclides through mass separation followed by implantation. Additionally, mass-separated, implanted targets are used for nuclear charge radius determination...
The CANadian Rare isotope facility with Electron Beam ion source (CANREB) is an important component of the Advanced Rare IsotopE Laboratory (ARIEL) at TRIUMF. CANREB will deliver highly charged radioactive ion beams for post-acceleration to nuclear physics experiments. Ion beams injected into CANREB are bunched using a radiofrequency quadrupole cooler buncher and energy adjusted using a pulsed...
Some nuclei, such as gadolinium, exhibit exceptionally large neutron capture cross sections—far exceeding typical geomatical cross section of atomic nuclei. This indicates the existence of exotic nuclear structures, such as spatially extended neutron halo states, which remain underexplored, particularly in heavy nuclei.
To investigate such states, we are developing a new approach based on...
We assess the feasibility of creating molecular beams within an RFQ cooler-buncher (ARQB) at the CANREB (CANadian Rare isotope facility with Electron Beam ion source) facility at TRIUMF. Selective ion–gas phase chemistry is used to form molecules inside the ARQB between +1 ions and neutral gases, with the goal of delivering those molecular ion beams into the CANREB-TRIUMF beamline system. This...
Cluster knockout reaction in inverse kinematics is a direct probe to study cluster formation in nuclei. We have previously developed a silicon detector system optimized for measuring recoil protons emitted in such reactions, achieving high-precision data acquisition using APV25-S1 readout chips.
In this study, we newly developed trapezoidal silicon detectors capable of detecting emitted...
ISOL@MYRRHA will be an ISOL facility featuring, in the phase 1 of the MYRRHA project, a proton beam of energy 100 MeV and currents up to 500 µA. This facility will produce RIBs for several research applications in fundamental interactions, nuclear physics, condensed matter, biology and nuclear medicine.
The first-generation targets of ISOL@MYRRHA are being designed for proton beam currents of...
Mass spectrometry plays a crucial role in numerous fields of physics research like nuclear astrophysics, nuclear structure, and fundamental symmetries. Precise knowledge of masses is fundamental to these studies; for example, a relative mass precision of $\leq$10$^{-8}$ is required to probe the Standard Model and beyond. Penning traps have been involved in some of the most precise mass...
Pions (Yukawa particles) mediate the strong interaction between nucleons and play a crucial role in the formation and stability of atomic nuclei. Their influence manifests through tensor forces and three-body forces, significantly contributing to nuclear binding and saturation properties—yet many aspects remain poorly understood. In particular, pions are essential in connecting low- and...
The proposed nEXO experiment will use a tonne-scale liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber that aims to uncover properties of neutrinos via the observation of Xe-136 neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ), with a projected half-life sensitivity of $1.35\times10^{28}$ years at the 90% confidence level, after 10 years of live time. Such observation of lepton number violation would point to...
Precision laser spectroscopy is a powerful technique for investigating nuclear properties such as nuclear spins, electromagnetic moments, and changes in the mean-square radii in a way that is independent of a nuclear model [1]. Measurements using this technique are essential for testing and advancing nuclear theories. The Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (CRIS) setup located at CERN...
The design of a 3-sector high-resolution Multi-Turn Time-Of-Flight Mass Analyzer (MT-TOF MA) with a diameter of 300 mm and a flight path of ~30 m at 46 turns is presented. The analyzer has rotational and mid-plane symmetry of the main electrodes. It includes lower and upper polar-toroidal sectors S1 and S3, toroidal sector S2 located in the mid-plane, a pair of polar lenses for lateral...
The resonance ionization laser ion sources RILIS, pioneered by V.S. Letokhov and his group in the 1980ties, have since found wide applications at all on-line isotope separator facilities worldwide. This success is based on the excellent specifications of ultimate ionization efficiency, realized for most elements of the periodic table, combined with very high selectivity achieved by suppressing...
A SCRIT (Self-confining RI Ion target) technique forms an ion target in an electron storage ring for electron-RI scattering experiments. The target ions are trapped transversely by periodic focusing forces of electron beam bunches and longitudinally by an electrostatic well potential produced by the SCRIT device. The trapped target ions are focused onto the electron beam axis as their charge...
Laser spectroscopy experiments are an indispensable tool in modern nuclear structure studies. Hyperfine structure and isotope shift data such as nuclear moments and charge radii obtained in such experiments serve as tests of state-of-the-art theories[1]. Such data are particularly sparse for heavy and superheavy nuclei[2]. Our collaboration's experiment JetRIS has been successfully applied to...
Electron-beam-driven RI separator for SCRIT (ERIS) [1] is dedicated to produce a high-quality and low-energy radioisotope (RI) beam for the SCRIT (Self-Confinement RI Target) electron scattering facility [2] at the RIKEN RI Beam Factory. Electron scattering is one of the useful ways to accurately understand the internal structure of atomic nuclei. The aim of this facility is realization of...
The design, development, and offline performance evaluation of hermetic target vessels and prototype target–ion source assemblies for both the electron and proton target stations at TRIUMF’s ARIEL facility are presented. These systems, along with their surrounding infrastructure, are engineered to withstand the extreme thermal and radioactive environments associated with high-power driver beam...
Multireflection time-of-flight mass spectrographs (MRTOF-MS) are essential tools for high-precision mass spectrometry of short-lived nuclides. Three such devices are currently in online operation at the GARIS, BigRIPS, and KISS facilities of RIKEN RIBF, enabling accurate mass determinations of exotic nuclides such as Ti-58 [1], Db-258 [2], and U-241 [3], and others [4]. A key component of the...
At the Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP), Osaka University, the ONOKORO project is underway to systematically investigate cluster knockout reactions. Previous measurements of the Sn(p, pα) reaction have provided experimental evidence for α-cluster formation at the surface of heavy nuclei. In this program, a double-arm spectrometer setup is employed, consisting of the Grand Raiden...
A tiny time-projection chamber (Mini TPC) has been developed for tracking beam particles in the active target. CAT-M consists of a large TPC and twelve silicon strip detectors, and which is designed for missing mass spectroscopy using high-intensity ($\sim 10^{6}$ particles per particle) heavy-ion beam inverse kinematics, aim to determine nuclear matter equation of state. Recently a dipole...
The High-Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF), developed by the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP), is scheduled to operate by the end of 2025. HIAF comprises a superconducting linac, a booster ring, a spectrometer ring, and a High-rigidity Radioactive Ion Beam Line (HIRIBL) connecting these two rings [1]. HIRIBL is an in-flight projectile fragment separator designed to produce...
Proton-neutron pair correlations in neutron-rich nuclei is one of the attractive topics relating to the structure and dynamics in largely-different-scale nucleon many body systems, nuclei and neutron stars. To investigate such correlations, we are aiming for extracting isoscalar and isovector proton-neutron transfer strengths in neutron-rich nuclei via the proton-neutron transfer reactions...
Isotope Separation Online (ISOL) facilities produce purified radioactive isotope beams (RIBs) for applications in fundamental research, solid-state physics, biology and medicine. As part of the first phase of the MYRRHA program at SCK CEN, an ISOL facility is being developed to operate with a high-power 100 MeV proton beam (with intensities up to 500 μA). This study focuses on optimizing...
The ARIEL High Resolution Separator at TRIUMF is designed to have a mass resolving power of 20000 for an accepted emittance of 3μm x 6μm. Two 90° dipoles serve as the separating elements, with multipole correction between them to improve the preservation of emittance. At the entrance and exit, the ion beam envelope is magnified by quadrupoles to ease mechanical requirements of the slits which...
Iain D. Moore for the IGISOL collaboration
Accelerator Laboratory, University of Jyväskylä, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland.
A campaign of measurements has been performed at the IGISOL facility, Accelerator Laboratory of Jyväskylä, exploring a long chain of silver isotopes resulting in measurements of charge radii, electromagnetic moments, spins, masses and excitation energies [1,2]. Different...
Unitarity tests of the Cabbibo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) quark mixing matrix offer unique insight into the electroweak part of the Standard Model. A reliable unitarity test of this matrix requires a precise and accurate value of the largest element, $V_{ud}$. Recent improvements to a theoretical correction term have prompted the need to extract $V_{ud}$ from a larger subset of nuclei including...
Commissioned in 1969, the Leuven Isotope Separator (LIS) was extensively used for radioisotope implantation and Mössbauer spectroscopy in solid-state research [1]. After years of inactivity, efforts to bring the machine back to operational status began in 2020 [2].
Reviving a decades-old radioactive machine proved far from straightforward. Unexpected radioactive hotspots, undocumented...
The BigRIPS in-flight separator [1] at RIKEN RIBF, which began operation in March 2007, has provided a substantial variety of radioactive isotopes (RIs) as beams over a wide nuclear region, from light-mass ions to heavy RIs around U isotopes [2, 3].
The system features a two-stage configuration of achromatic separation and large ion-optical acceptance.
In addition, by using state-of-the-art...
Recently, the collinear laser spectroscopy (CLS) apparatus, called CLaSsy, has been successfully commissioned, which has been tested by using the Na isotopes from the ISOL facility at RAON. The spectroscopic resolution achieved has been sufficient to resolve the D1 line hyperfine structure of the $^2$S$_{1/2}$ ground state and the $^2$P$_{1/2}$ excited state, while limiting the measurement of...
Studies of nuclei far from the valley of stability are of interest, as they offer valuable insights into novel or unexpected nuclear properties. These studies are relevant to various fields of physics ranging from fundamental physics, nuclear astrophysics, and applications. Therefore, it is important to produce, identify and study such exotic nuclei far from the valley of stability. The...
Multi-nucleon transfer (MNT) reactions between two heavy ions offer an effective method of producing heavy, neutron-rich nuclei that cannot currently be accessed efficiently using traditional projectile-fragmentation, target-fragmentation or fission production techniques [1]. These nuclei are important for understanding many astrophysical phenomena. For example, properties of the neutron-rich...
A decade ago, the SPIRAL1 (Système de Production d’Ions Radioactifs Accélérés en Ligne) [1] facility went through a major upgrade at GANIL (Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds). Based on the ISOL (Isotope Separation On Line) technique and exploiting a TISS (Target and Ion Source System), this facility uses several sources to deliver RIBs (Radioactive Ion Beams). However, only the...
The experimental determination of atomic and nuclear properties such as atomic energy levels, ionization potentials, electromagnetic moments, as well as trends in mean-square charge radii for nuclei in the region of the heaviest elements remain limited. The main challenges are low production rates in accelerator facilities and the short half-life of the fusion products. This necessitates the...
The Standard Model of particle physics is one of the most successful models of the universe, yet it is known to be incomplete. Substantial efforts on the theoretical front introduce new physics through extensions of the Standard Model. Advances in quantum control of molecules have resulted in some of the most stringent constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model [1-3]. Extensive molecular...
Global demand for lutetium-177 has risen sharply with the gain in prominence for the targeted treatment of advanced neuroendocrine tumors and prostate cancer, both of which are treated with specially formulated radiotherapeutics. Lutetium-177 is a beta-emitting radionuclide historically produced by direct neutron irradiation of the long-lived radioisotope lutetium-176. Increasingly,...
The scientific program of the new IRL between CNRS and TRIUMF will be described.
The Self-Confining RI Ion Target(SCRIT) method is a unique technique for forming an ion target for electron-RI scattering experiments. In the SCRIT method, target ions are trapped in all three spatial dimensions inside the electron storage ring. The world's first electron scattering experiment with $^{137}$Cs ions produced by the ISOL was successfully conducted at RIKEN RI Beam Factory...
We have developed a novel mass separator—the multi-radio-frequency quadrupole (MRFQ)—that exploits betatron resonance. A distinctive feature of the MRFQ is the deliberate application of a skew electric field to induce the strong sum resonance. It has been theoretically verified that isobar separation is possible by utilizing the sharpness of the induced resonance, and we fabricate a prototype...
Systematic measurement of isoscalar giant monopole resonances, especially in unstable nuclei, via inelastic scattering in inverse kinematics is one of the important issues for determining the nuclear matter equation of state. An active target TPC, CAT-M, has been developed [1] for such measurement, using high-intensity heavy-ion beams of up to approximately 10$^6$ counts per second. The...
The development of the Self-Confining Radioactive Isotope Target (SCRIT) [1] has enabled generation of stationary targets from rare, short-lived nuclei, thus permitting a wide range of nuclear reaction experiments. We use the EBIT technique to generalize the RI stationary target. Conventional operation using an Electron Beam Ion Trap (EBIT), however, also captures light residual gas ions such...
Research on short-lived unstable nuclei (radioactive isotopes, RI) has progressed rapidly in recent years, driven by advances in accelerator technology as well as RI production and separation techniques. Consequently, nuclear reaction experiments with rare RIs far from the valley of stability have been drawing increasing attention. To improve the measurement accuracy of nuclear reactions with...
The charge radius or point-proton radius is an important quantity for investigating nuclear structure. Although electron scattering experiments and isotope-shift measurements have provided many precise data on charge radii, these methods are limited to long-lived and abundantly produced nuclei. Therefore, we proposed an applicability of the charge changing cross section ($\sigma_{cc}$) to...
We have launched ESPRI+ and ONOKORO projects to investigate uniform and nonuniform properties in nuclei and nuclear matter.
Under these projects, we plan to perform the experiments to measure proton elastic scattering and proton induced cluster knockout reaction in inverse kinematics at RIBF, Riken.
For these experiments, we are developing the new telescopes named DELTA and...
The Rare-RI Ring (R3) is an isochronous mass spectrometer aimed at measuring the masses of exotic nuclei that are rarely produced with short lifetimes (<10 ms). Since the successful commissioning experiment ten years ago, the technical developments have been continued to improve the efficiency and precision for mass measurements. The vertical steering magnets recently installed at the...
A dedicated test stand has been designed, constructed, and installed in the ISAC experimental hall at TRIUMF to perform thermal characterization of target materials. The setup features a vacuum chamber in which an electron beam is generated and accelerated across a high-voltage gradient to irradiate material samples. The system has been successfully commissioned, demonstrating the ability to...
To study the r-process, experimental information is scarce and modern r-process network calculations rely on theoretical models that give divergent predictions as one moves away from the valley of stability. Nuclear masses help to determine the r-process path and shed light on the nucleosynthesis environment.
The neutron-rich nuclei at $N = 126$ that populate the r-process third abundance...
The Advanced Cryogenic Gas Stopper (ACGS) [1] is the primary device used at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) to convert fast beams of exotic nuclei into low-energy beams, which are delivered to the stopped beam experimental area or to the re-accelerator facility (ReA). As FRIB continues a phased ramp-up of primary beam power, ACGS must efficiently stop and extract increasingly...
At TRIUMF, the ISAC Test Stand serves as an offline ion beam mass separator station used for target conditioning prior to online operation and development of various radioactive ion beam (RIB) delivery systems. Numerous upgrades have been implemented to enhance the reliability of ISAC targets online and to support future RIB developments. These include the integration of switchable FEBIAD...
The Batch Mode Ion Source (BMIS) [1] at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) has been in use since 2021 to provide long-lived and stable isotope beams of various elements for successful user experiments [2]. Its design is based on target-ion-source modules developed and employed at the ISOLDE frontends at CERN [3]. At FRIB, source samples of the desired isotope, which consist of the...
Molecular ion production from the TRIUMF FEBIAD ion source was systematically studied as a function of source operating parameters. During an opportunistic beamtime shift, the FEBIAD was optimized while isobaric species were measured using TITAN’s MR-TOF mass spectrometer. Exploring parameter "islands" revealed how each region corresponds to distinct molecular species. This approach was...
Target materials are routinely irradiated at TRIUMF to produce radioactive isotopes. These materials have customized properties that facilitate the delivery of short-lived species (with half-lives of <10 ms) to experimental stations.
With the development of the Advanced Rare Isotope Laboratory (ARIEL), we are expanding our scientific capabilities by adding two additional stations, which will...
The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), operational since 2022, launches a new era of scientific discovery that builds upon its unprecedented primary beam power. Two complementary gas stoppers are in use to provide stopped and re-accelerated rare isotope beams to users, significantly extending FRIB’s scientific program beyond fast beams. Swift and efficient gas stopper tuning is required...
At the ISAC-TRIUMF facility, operating the target and ion source infrastructure at voltages from 10 keV to 60 keV is key to extracting ion beams and transporting them to experiments. However this high voltage operation provides numerous challenges for an ISOL facility. Because of the contamination and activation of the equipment, high voltage surfaces facing ground potential cannot be...
Cluster formation is a fundamental phenomenon in nuclear physics and is crucial for understanding nuclear structure and dynamics. To study cluster formation in nuclei, we use quasi-free knockout reactions with a proton probe to directly measure clusters formed in the nucleus. This approach, combined with inverse kinematics, allows measurements over a wide range of nuclei.
To implement this...
After many years of routine tumor treatment with heavy-ion beams (such as 12C) [1,2], several recent advancements have paved the way for hadron therapy using light, positron-emitting ion beams [3, 4]. Studies have demonstrated that selected light ion beams (e.g., up to mass number A = 20) can be efficiently produced via fragmentation reactions and in-flight separation, making them viable...
The Resonance Ionization Laser Ion Source (RILIS) has become the most-used ion source type in the ISOL (Isotope Separator On-Line) facilities worldwide due to its element selectivity and high ionization efficiency. The hot-cavity type RILIS developed at RAON is based on resonant excitation of atomic transitions by the frequency tuned laser beams which are overlapped temporally and spatially...
The RAON ISOL (Isotope Separation On-Line) system has been in operation for rare isotope beam production since March 2023. In the early phase, surface-ionized beams of Li, Na, and Al were produced from a SiC target bombarded with a 70 MeV, 1 kW proton beam. The measurement of short-lived $^{24\mathrm{m}}$Na ($T_{1/2} = 20\mathrm{ms}$) demonstrated good release efficiency of the SiC target....
The Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) system at the Institute for Rare Isotope Science (IRIS) has successfully produced a variety of rare isotopes (RIs). Various diagnostic devices are used to verify the RIs. Ions extracted from the Target Ion Source (TIS) are cooled and bunched using the Radio Frequency Quadrupole Cooler-Buncher (RFQ-CB) to improve the charge breeding efficiency of the...
The CERN HIE-ISOLDE facility accelerates a unique worldwide variety of radioactive ions up to collision energies close to 10 MeV/A. The physics program encompasses a broad range of nuclear structure studies, from shell evolution to nuclear astrophysics. To fully profit from the new facility, our collaboration has proposed the construction of the “Superconducting Recoil Separator” ISRS will...
Ion traps have become an essential tool for precision studies of rare isotopes, allowing researchers to confine and manipulate individual ions, or ensembles of ions, for extended periods. They are used in a wide variety of applications involving rare isotopes, from enabling measurements with unprecedented accuracy, even for species delivered at extremely low rates, to preparing high-quality,...
Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) is a method of isotope production where a target, typically held in a tantalum container, is bombarded with a high energy driver beam, upon which the resulting radioisotopes are ionized and mass separated. High temperatures are required for a sufficient yield, but a combination of these harsh conditions and carbon corrosion from carbide targets leads to target...
In-flight decay spectroscopy is an experimental method that involves observing the decay of radioactive nuclei while they are in swift motion [1,2]. It allows for the study of exotic nuclei at and even beyond the
driplines, to unravel their internal structure and their decay; for instance, it provides valuable information about the decay energy and width of the parent nucleus, insight into...
