Speaker
Description
ISOLDE is a radioactive ion beam facility within CERN’s proton accelerator complex. Ion beams of more than 70 different elements can be produced using a selected combination of ion source types and target materials available. In 2017 a total of 36 target and ion source units (targets) were constructed, tested and irradiated at ISOLDE for scheduled physics experiments, used for the commissioning of the new MEDICIS facility or served for pure machine development.
Both development studies and routine production share the same infrastructure, including an off-line mass separator and a thermal calibration test stand. Since the target production schedule has to be prioritized this creates a bottleneck for development work that is required to meet the demand in new and more exotic beams by the ISOL community.
While this is addressed by ongoing projects envisaging the construction of additional facilities with off-line-2 currently in commissioning phase and a future off-line-3 planned for the Class A laboratory, the existing off-line-1 mass separator has undergone several upgrades and additions.
Here we will give an overview about the infrastructure and procedures involved for the ISOLDE target production and documentation. We will discuss the ongoing upgrade programme to improve and extend our capabilities such as upgrades of the control software, addition of residual gas analysers, automation and data logging. A second part will be focussed on the dedicated infrastructure towards the development and study of new ion sources and the formation of molecular beams. We will conclude with an overview over the development programme foreseen during the LHC Long Shutdown 2 period (LS2) where no protons will be delivered to ISOLDE.
