Experimental tests of an advanced proton-to-neutron converter at ISOLDE-CERN

Abstract

The suppression of isobaric contaminations is of growing importance for many scientific programs using radioactive isotopes produced at isotope separation on-line (ISOL) facilities, such as ISOLDE-CERN. A solid tungsten proton-to-neutron converter has been used for ten years to produce neutron-rich fission fragments from an UCx target while suppressing the production of neutron-deficient isobaric contaminants. The remaining contamination is mainly produced by primary protons that are scattered by the heavy neutron converter and finally impinge on the UCx target itself. Therefore, the knowledge of the energy-dependant cross-sections of proton and neutron induced fission events is crucial in order to evaluate future converter concepts. In this paper, an improved neutron converter prototype design is presented together with the experimentally assessed radioisotope production of Rb, Zn, Cu, Ga and In that validate the converter concept aiming at beams of higher purity neutron-rich isotopes. The experimentally derived release efficiencies for isotopes produced by the 1.4 GeV protons available at ISOLDE are used to evaluate the Monte Carlo code FLUKA and the cross-section codes TALYS and ABRABLA, respectively

Probing the Ga31 ground-state properties in the region near Z=28 with high-resolution laser spectroscopy

“…Beams of radioactive gallium isotopes were produced at the ISOLDE facility in CERN [18] by first impinging 1.4 GeV protons from the Proton-Synchrotron Booster [19] onto a solid tungsten neutron converter [20]. Neutrons produced from the resulting spallation processes irradiated a thick UC x target to induce fission events.…”

Search for the Ga73 ground-state doublet splitting in the β decay of Zn73

“…In this investigation, we took advantage of the high purity of the Zn beams at ISOLDE. The zinc atoms were produced by the collision of 1.4 GeV protons on the neutron converter [28] of a UC x target unit that was operated at ∼2 000…”

β decay of In133 : γ emission from neutron-unbound states in SnKorgul1, Fraile2, Benito3 et al. 2019Phys. Rev. CSelf Cite158312View full textAdd to dashboardCite

“…Indium ions were produced by fission induced in a UC x target by fast neutrons. Those were generated by a proton-to-neutron converter [15], with a beam of 1.4-GeV protons from the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB) having an average beam intensity of 1.9 μA. The fission products then diffuse from the target material to the hot ion source.…”