Live cell calcium imaging at the single ion hit facility of GSI

To study the fast intracellular calcium response after ion irradiation in living mammalian cells, a live cell calcium imaging set-up was constructed at the targeted cell irradiation facility at GSI. This work introduces the live cell calcium imaging system, shows its performance, an example of the ratio-metric calcium measurement and its application to on-line study calcium response to targeted ion irradiation in human cells.     

Recent progress in JAERI single ion hit system

Single ion hit system has been installed in heavy ion microbeam system in JAERI Takasaki for analysis of single event phenomenon in semiconductor devices. The detection and control of a single ion injection to a target have been achieved by combining a beam pulsing system with a gated detection system. The microscopic observation of a track detector hit by a single ion periodically, shows the controls of the hit positions and numbers of incident ions are successful.     

全方位离子注入与沉积技术及其工业机的研制

全方位离子注入与沉积（Plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition,PIIID）技术发展到现在,已经逐步走向工业化应用。本文介绍了全方位离子注入与沉积技术的原理,探讨了全方位离子注入与沉积工业机应该具备的功能,介绍了研制成功的全方位离子注入与沉积设备的结构和实施效果,其脉冲阴极弧等离子体源沉积速率达到2．9A／s,IGBT固体开关调制器输出电压达到10kv,能够一次处理多个工业零件。     

The negative ion source test facility ELISE

The ITER neutral beam system is using inductively coupled radio frequency (RF) ion sources, that have demonstrated the required ITER parameters on (small) sources with extraction areas up to 200 cm². As a next step towards the full size ITER source IPP is presently constructing the test facility ELISE (“Extraction from a Large Ion Source Experiment”) operating with a “half-size” source which has approximately the width but only half the height of the ITER source. The modular driver concept is expected to allow a further extrapolation to the full size in one direction to be made. The main aim of this experiment is to demonstrate the production of a large uniform negative ion beam with ITER relevant parameters in stable conditions up to one hour.Plasma operation of the source is foreseen to be performed continuously for 1 h; extraction and acceleration of negative ions up to 60 kV is only possible in pulsed mode (10 s every 180 s) due to limitations of the existing IPP HV system. The design of the source and extraction system implements a high experimental flexibility and a good diagnostic access while still staying as close as possible to the ITER design. The main differences are the source operating in air and the use of a large gate valve between the source and the target chamber.ELISE is expected to start operation at the end of 2011 and is an important step for the development of the ITER NBI system; the experience gained early will support the design as well as the commissioning and operating phases of the PRIMA NBI test facilities and the ITER neutral beam system.     

酒类专用辐照站的设计

本文扼要介绍了酒类专用辐照站的设计原则、物理方案、工艺流程、建筑结构及其安全特性。该辐照站现装钴源0.925×10~(15)Bq,辐照酒量每天10t。它结构简单,操作方便,安全可靠,射线利用率高,很适于在地方小企业推广应用。     

Targets and ion sources at the TISOL facility

The TISOL thick target, on-line isotope separator is now operational at the TRIUMF facility with an active experimental program. A series of newly developed, target materials coupled with two different ion sources can now produce a wide range of isotopes. Radioactive beams of isotopes of He, C, N, O, Ne, Cl, Ar, Kr and Xe are now available in significant amounts from the first ECR (electron cyclotron resonance) ion source directly coupled to a multipurpose ISOL device. In addition, a surface ionization source with good yields for radioactive isotopes of Li, Na, Al, Ga, Rb, In, Cs, Yb and Fr is also available. Special emphasis has been given to the development of target materials, in particular light mass powder or pellet targets such as SiC and MgO. In addition, a newly developed zeolite (NaSiAlO₄) target shows properties which make it an optimal choice for producing isotopes near stability for nuclear astrophysics experiments with accelerated radioactive beams. Source and target developments at the upgraded TISOL facility will be presented.     

Scanning transmission ion microscopy on Fudan SPM facility

In this paper,we report a novel measurement system based on the development of Fudan Scanning Proton Microscopy(SPM) facility.By using Si-PIN diode(Hamamatsu S1223-01) detector,scanning transmission ion microscopy(STIM) measurement system has been set up.It can provide density and structural images with high probing efficiency and non-destruction by utilizing the energy loss of high energy(MeV) and focused ions penetrating through a thin sample.STIM measurement is able to map the density distribution of organic elements which mostly compose biology materials,such information can not be detected by using conventional Be-windowed Si(Li) X-ray detector in Particle Induced X-ray Emission(PIXE) technique.The spatial resolution capability of STIM is higher than PIXE technique at same accelerator status.As a result of STIM measurement,Paramecium attached on the top of Kapton tube was measured by STIM.     

The Singapore high resolution single cell imaging facility

The Centre for Ion Beam Applications, National University of Singapore has recently expanded from three state-of-the-art beam lines to five. Two new beam lines have been constructed: A second generation proton beam writing line, and a high resolution single cell imaging facility. Both systems feature high demagnification lens systems based on compact Oxford Microbeams OM52 lenses, coupled with reduced lens/image distances.The single cell imaging facility is designed around OM52 compact lenses capable of operating in a variety of high demagnification configurations including the spaced Oxford triplet and the double crossover Russian quadruplet. The new facility has design specifications aimed at spatial resolutions below 50 nm, with a variety of techniques including STIM, secondary electron and fluorescence imaging, and an in-built optical and fluorescence microscope for sample imaging, identification and positioning.Preliminary tests using the single space Oxford triplet configuration have indicated a beam spot size of 31 × 39 nm in the horizontal and vertical directions respectively, at beam currents of ∼10,000 protons per second. However, a weakness in the specifications of the electrostatic scanning system has been identified, and a more stable scanning system needs to be implemented before we can fully realize the optimum performance. A single whole fibroblast cell has been scanned using 1.5 MeV protons, and a median fit to the proton transmission energy loss data has shown that proton STIM gives excellent details of the cell structure despite the relatively poor contrast of proton STIM compared with alpha STIM.     

Deposition of metastable binary alloy thin films using sequential ion beams from a single ion source

A technique of producing metastable films by the sequential deposition of low energy ion beams of two different ion species from a single ion source system is described. A microprocessor controlled data acquisition and control system sequentially selects one ion species at a time. The selected ion species is deposited onto a substrate at a low energy which gives an almost unity sticking coefficient and a negligible sputtering coefficient. With this extreme low energy ion bombardment the atomic mixing process is governed mainly by the injected particle range distribution and to a lesser degree by collisional mixing. By selecting the optimum duty cycle of two sequential ion beams, the film composition can be programmable as growth proceeds. Some simulation results of the growth of binary Pb/Mg films are presented when atomic mixing theories are modified to represent film growth.     

Design of a large irradiation channel at MNSR facility in Ghana

In the design of new slant tube for large sample irradiation in the Ghana Research Reactor-1 facility, Monte Carlo N-Particle Code version 5 (MCNP-5) was employed to simulate the neutron flux profile of the new design. The results show that the neutron flux peaks at different points, at an average thermal neutron flux of (1.1406 ± 0.0046) × 10¹¹, (1.1849 ± 0.0047) × 10¹¹ and (1.0580 ± 0.0044) × 10¹¹ n cm^?2 s^?1 around the reactor vessel. The first two peaks happened to coincide with pneumatic transfer pipes in the pool, but the third peak happened to be in line with the slant tube position. It was observed that as the diameter of the tube varies from 3.90 cm to 23.40 cm, the average thermal neutron flux decreased exponentially from (1.1849 ± 0.0047)10¹¹ n cm^?2 s^?1 to (3.3241 ± 0.0100) × 10¹⁰ n cm^?2 s^?1. The average thermal neutron flux decreases exponentially along the diameter of the designed slant tube from (1.0366 ± 0.0042) × 10¹¹ n cm^?2 s^?1 to (9.7396 ± 0.0136) × 10⁹ n cm^?2 s^?1. From the results, it is evident that a slant tube of diameter 15.00 cm can be installed at the original slant tube position for large sample irradiation.     

Characterisation of a pre-cell hit detector to be used in single cell irradiation experiments at the Lund Nuclear Microprobe

This paper describes the characterisation of an ultra-thin silicon semiconductor ΔE detector to be used as a pre-cell ion hit detector in single ion experiments on individual, living cells. The characteristics of interest for this specific application are the hit detection efficiency, which has to be close to 100% to enable bombardment with either a single ion or a counted number of ions, the beam spreading, which should be as small as possible to maintain the targeting accuracy, and the vacuum tightness, since the detector is intended, if possible, to be used simultaneously as vacuum window. The hit detection efficiency was shown to be above 99% when detecting alpha particles or 2 MeV protons, the increase in beam size was about 1 μm and the vacuum tightness was comparable to that of the Si₃N₄ wafer which is normally used as vacuum window, thus the ΔE detector fulfils the main criteria to function properly as a single ion hit detector.     

重离子束治癌装置及技术发展

首先简要回顾了重离子束治癌在我国的兴起与发展的情况.随后着重介绍了重离子束治癌装置及部分关键技术:总体布局方案、束流引出模式、束流配送系统、束流旋转机架、辐照门控系统、PET成像等.     

单离子束能量稳定性的改进

设计了旋转伏特计(Generating voltmeter,GVM)控制电路以稳定静电加速器终端高压,以提高单离子束能量稳定性、长时IMT作稳定性和定位精度等束流品质.建立了简化模型计算束流能量不稳定性与单离子束束径的关系.测试结果表明,增加GVM控制后,单离子束稳定工作的时间可达6h以上,单离子束束径约减小了10%.     

兰州重离子治癌研究装置的准直测量技术

介绍了中国科学院近代物理研究所重离子治癌装置的安装定位测量技术和方法。利用激光跟踪仪通过控制网的建立,和多重坐标系的转换,使最后的磁铁安装径向相对误差不超过±(0.05-0.1)mm,真空管道的横向及竖向精度也达到了±(0.1-0.2)mm。     

Design study of a rotating gantry for the HIMAC new treatment facility

A project to construct a new treatment facility as an extension of the existing HIMAC facility has been initiated for the further development of carbon-ion therapy. In the new facility, one of the treatment rooms will be equipped with an iso-centric gantry system employing a 3D pencil beam scanning irradiation method. In order to realize a compact design, the final 90° bending magnet is divided into two bending magnets of 60° and 30°. The scanning magnets are set between these two bending magnets, although the aperture of the 30° magnet increases. Finally, we achieved 350 tons of total weight for 400 MeV/u carbon beams with a 150 mm square field.     

Materials science and biophysics applications at the ISOLDE radioactive ion beam facility

The ISOLDE isotope separator facility at CERN provides a variety of radioactive ion beams, currently more than 800 different isotopes from ∼70 chemical elements. The radioisotopes are produced on-line by nuclear reactions from a 1.4 GeV proton beam with various types of targets, outdiffusion of the reaction products and, if possible, chemically selective ionisation, followed by 60 kV acceleration and mass separation. While ISOLDE is mainly used for nuclear and atomic physics studies, applications in materials science and biophysics account for a significant part (currently ∼15%) of the delivered beam time, requested by 18 different experiments. The ISOLDE materials science and biophysics community currently consists of ∼80 scientists from more than 40 participating institutes and 21 countries. In the field of materials science, investigations focus on the study of semiconductors and oxides, with the recent additions of nanoparticles and metals, while the biophysics studies address the toxicity of metal ions in biological systems. The characterisation methods used are typical radioactive probe techniques such as Mössbauer spectroscopy, perturbed angular correlation, emission channeling, and tracer diffusion studies. In addition to these “classic” methods of nuclear solid state physics, also standard semiconductor analysis techniques such as photoluminescence or deep level transient spectroscopy profit from the application of radioactive isotopes, which helps them to overcome their chemical “blindness” since the nuclear half life of radioisotopes provides a signal that changes in time with characteristic exponential decay or saturation curves. In this presentation an overview will be given on the recent research activities in materials science and biophysics at ISOLDE, presenting some of the highlights during the last five years, together with a short outlook on the new developments under way.     

低能离子探测器的设计及测试

自行设计制作并测试了用于电子-离子碰撞电离截面测量实验的低能离子探测器。该探测器由Al_2O_3转换板、加速电极、单通道电子倍增器三部分组成。离子沿70°方向轰击转换板,产生数目与离子能量成正比的二次电子,电子由单通道倍增器测量。采用合适的电子学线路和甄别阈,可以有效地把离子计数与本底分开。对10keV Ar~+在入射束流小于10~4s~(-1)时,探测效率接近100％。本探测器可用于低能重离子的计数测量。     

Commissioning and first results of the ITER-relevant negative ion beam test facility ELISE

The test facility ELISE which was constructed in the last three years at the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik (IPP), Garching, is an important intermediate step of the development of the neutral beam system for ITER. ELISE allows gaining an early experience of the performance and operation of large RF driven sources for negative hydrogen ions and will give an important input for the commissioning and the design of the SPIDER and MITICA test facilities at Padua and the ITER neutral beam system. ELISE has gone recently into operation with first plasma and beam pulses. The experiments aim at the demonstration of an ion beam at the required parameters within 2 years of operation until end of 2014, the end of the service contract with F4E for the establishment and exploitation of ELISE.     

Design progress on ITER port plug test facility

To achieve the overall ITER machine availability target, the availability of diagnostics and heating port plugs shall be as high as 99.5%. To fulfill these requirements, it is mandatory to test the port plugs at operating temperature before installation on the machine and after refurbishment.The ITER port plug test facility (PPTF) provides the possibility to test upper and equatorial port plugs before installation on the machine. The port plug test facility is composed of several test stands. These test stands are first used in the domestic agencies and on the ITER Organization site to test the port plugs at the end of manufacturing. Two of these stands are installed later in the ITER hot cell facility to test the port plugs after refurbishment. The port plugs to be tested are the Ion Cyclotron (IC) heating and current drive antennas, Electron Cyclotron (EC) heating and current drive launchers, diagnostics and test blanket modules port plugs.Test stands shall be capable to perform environmental and functional tests. The test stands are composed of one vacuum tank (3.3 m in diameter, 5.6 m long) and the associated heating, vacuum and control systems. The vacuum tank shall achieve an ultimate pressure of 1 × 10^?5 Pa at 100 °C containing a port plug. The heating system shall provide water at 240 °C and 4.4 MPa to heat up the port plugs. Openings are provided on the back of the vacuum tank to insert probes for the functional tests.This paper describes the tests to be performed on the port plugs and the conceptual design of the port plug test facility. The configuration of the standalone test stands and the integration in the hot cell facility are presented.