INFN/LNL, Legnaro
INFN/LNS, Catania
SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) is an INFN project to develop a Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) facility as an intermediate step toward EURISOL. The SPES project is part of the INFN Road Map for the Nuclear Physics development in Italy and is supported by LNL and LNS the INFN National Laboratories of Nuclear Physics in Legnaro and Catania. The Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL) was chosen as the facility site due to the presence of the PIAVE-ALPI accelerator complex, which will be used as re-accelerator for the RIBs. The SPES project is based on the ISOL method with an UCx Direct Target and makes use of a proton driver of at least 40 MeV energy and 200 microA current. Neutron-rich radioactive beams will be produced by Uranium fission at an expected fission rate in the target in the order of 1013 fissions per second. The key feature of SPES is to provide high intensity and highquality beams of neutron rich nuclei to perform forefront research in nuclear structure, reaction dynamics and interdisciplinary fields like medical, biological and material sciences. The exotic isotopes will be re-accelerated by the ALPI superconducting linac at energies up to 10AMeV for masses in the region of A=130 amu with an expected rate on target of 109 pps.
INFN/LNL, Legnaro
ITEP, Moscow
The positive ion injector for the PIAVE-ALPI complex consists of an ECR ion source placed on a high voltage platform. A 14.4 GHz ECRIS named Alice, designed and constructed at LNL in the early &##8216;90, reliably delivered gaseous beams to the Superconducting RFQ PIAVE for nuclear physics experiments until 2008. The requests for heavy ion beams of increased current and energy, needed to perform the experiments planned for the next years with the AGATA demonstrator, prompted us to upgrade our injector with a new ECR source capable of higher output beam currents and higher charge states. This activity started in 2008 and was completed at the beginning of 2009. A 14.5 GHz, SUPERNANOGAN type ECRIS built by Pantechnik, was installed in our refurbished high voltage platform in July 2008. The space available for maintenance in the platform was increased and a new lead shielding for X-rays has been set up. The water cooling circuits have been redesigned to deliver different fluxes and inlet pressures to the equipment mounted on the platform (plasma chamber, extraction electrodes, bending dipole and power supply). A new safety system has been implemented in order to cope with new and more demanding safety rules. A lot of attention has been paid to the optimisation of the injection line with new diagnostic devices for beam characterisation (movable slits, emittance measurement tools). Commissioning of the new source and injector with beams has started and first results will be reported.
INFN/LNL, Legnaro
PIAVE-ALPI is the INFN-LNL superconducting heavy ion linac, composed by an SRFQ (superconducting RFQ) section and three QWR sections for a total of 80 cavities installed and an equivalent voltage exceeding 70 MV. In the last years the SRFQ and the bulk niobium QWR came into routine operation, the medium energy QWR section was upgraded with a new Nb sputtered coating, ECR source was firstly improved by using water cooled plasma chamber and then replaced with a new one. The operation of the accelerator complex allowed acquiring a strong experience on many operational issues related to ECRIS, superconducting cavities and cryogenics, beam control and manipulation (with the new and higher accelerating gradient). The paper reports about operational experience, the present limitations and the future perspectives of the facility in view of the experimental campaign with the EU detector AGATA and of the use of PIAVE ALPI as RIB post-accelerator for SPES radioactive ion beam facility.