International audienceMeasurements and ion optic calculations showed that the large momentum acceptance of the VAMOS spectrometer at GANIL could be further increased from $\sim$ 11% to $\sim$ 30% by suitably enlarging the dimensions of the detectors used at the focal plane. Such a new detection system built for the focal plane of VAMOS is described. It consists of larger area detectors (1000 mm × 150 mm) namely, a Multi-Wire Parallel Plate Avalanche Counter (MWPPAC), two drift chambers, a segmented ionization chamber and an array of Si detectors. Compared to the earlier existing system (VAMOS), we show that the new system (VAMOS++) has a dispersion-independent momentum acceptance . Additionally a start detector (MWPPAC) has been introduced near the target to further improve the mass resolution to $\sim$ 1/220. The performance of the VAMOS++ spectrometer is demonstrated using measurements of residues formed in the collisions of 129Xe at 967 MeV on 197Au

A compact, quasi-4π position sensitive silicon array, TIARA, designed to study direct reactions induced by radioactive beams in inverse kinematics is described here. The Transfer and Inelastic All-angle Reaction Array (TIARA) consists of 8 resistive charge division detectors forming an octagonal barrel around the target and a set of double-sided silicon-strip annular detectors positioned at each end of the barrel. The detector was coupled to the γ-ray array EXOGAM and the spectrometer VAMOS at the GANIL Laboratory to demonstrate the potential of such an apparatus with radioactive beams. The reaction, well known in direct kinematics, has been carried out in inverse kinematics for that purpose. The observation of the ground state and excited states at 7.16 and 7.86 MeV is presented here as well as the comparison of the measured proton angular distributions with DWBA calculations. Transferred l-values are in very good agreement with both theoretical calculations and previous experimental results obtained in direct kinematics