Radiation damage annealing of Hg implanted InP

The formation of shallow p-type layers in InP has been previously achieved by Hg implantation. In this work, for the first time, microscopic information of the near surrounding of the Hg dopant and the recovery of the damaged layer is derived combining RBS and hyperfine interactions studies. It is shown that most of the radiation damage created by the implantation can be recovered with a two step furnace annealing at 400°C and 800°C using a proximity cap.     

Very high sensitivity in collinear laser spectroscopy: resonance detection by particle counting techniques

Fast-beam collinear laser spectroscopy with resonance detection by counting of fluorescence photons provides a versatile tool for precise determinations of nuclear ground-state properties. The intrinsic high sensitivity of this method can be further increased by almost three orders of magnitude if measuring schemes based on ion or atom counting are introduced. The optical pumping from one atomic state to another at an appreciably different excitation energy is detected via state-selective collisional charge exchange processes and charge-state separated atom or ion counting. Applications of these techniques on alkaline earth, noble gas, mercury and thallium beams is examined.     

Ion source with combined cathode and transfer line heating

The plasma-discharge ion-source concept used in connection with the high temperature thick targets at the CERN-ISOLDE facility is described. Derived from the construction of the tubular surface ionizer, the same current which heats the transfer line between the target and the ion source is also used to heat the disc-shaped cathode. This construction has the advantage that the less volatile nuclear reaction products are transferred to the center of the source by diffusion along a rising temperature gradient, so that adsorption losses on the walls are minimized. The design, which exists in several versions dependent on the element to be ionized and the coupling between the target and ion source, is discussed and examples of the measured efficiencies are given.     

Isomer separation of Cu and Cu with a resonance ionization laser ion source

Radioactive copper isotopes were ionized with the resonance ionization laser ion source (RILIS) at the on-line isotope separator ISOLDE (CERN). Using the different hyperfine structure in the 3d¹⁰ 4s  ²S_1/2 – 3d¹⁰ 4p  ²P⁰_1/2 transition the low- and high-spin isomers of ⁷⁰Cu were selectively enhanced by tuning the laser wavelength. The light was provided by a narrow-bandwidth dye laser pumped by copper vapor lasers (CVL) and frequency doubled in a BBO crystal. The ground state to isomeric state intensity ratio could be varied by a factor of 30, allowing to assign gamma transitions unambiguously to the decay of the individual isomers. It is shown that the method can also be used to determine magnetic moments. In a first experiment for the 1⁺ ground state of ⁷⁰Cu a magnetic moment of (+)1.8(3) μ_N and for the high-spin isomer of ⁷⁰Cu a magnetic moment of (±)1.2(3) μ_N could be deduced.     

The new CERN-ISOLDE on-line mass-separator facility at the PS-Booster

The ISOLDE on-line isotope separators have been operated since 1967 at the CERN-SC. This 600 MeV proton synchro-cyclotron had to be shut down in December 1990 after 33 years of service and it was decided to move ISOLDE to a new experimental area. The new on-line mass-separator facility is now under construction at the CERN PS-Booster. This accelerator provides an average current of about 2 μA of 1 GeV protons in very short high intensity pulses at low repetition rate. The beam can hit either one of the two target stations, the general purpose separator (GPS), a reconstructed ISOLDE-2 type machine (which can deliver beams simultaneously into three beam lines), and the high resolution separator (HRS), which is essentially the slightly modified ISOLDE-3 separator. The central GPS beam line and the HRS feed a common beam transport system to which most of the experiments will be connected. The new facility will be taken into operation in spring 1992.     

HPGe detectors for low-temperature nuclear orientation

Using the Low-Temperature Nuclear Orientation (LTNO) technique one can study various interesting properties of atomic nuclei and nuclear decay which can be deduced from the measurements of the angular distributions of charged particles emitted during the decay. However, the use of particle detectors working in conditions of LTNO devices (which are generally not available commercially) is a necessary precondition for the realization of these experiments.

Planar HPGe detectors for detection of charged particles at “liquid helium” temperatures were developed and produced at NPI e . Relatively simple technology using vacuum evaporation and diffusion was employed. The performance of detectors at low temperatures was tested and their characteristics measured in a testing cryostat before using them in real experiments.

The HPGe detectors were extensively used in a whole range of LTNO experiments with various physical objectives — in offline (IKS Leuven) as well as online (CERN-ISOLDE, Louvain-la-Neuve — LISOL) experiments. In frame of the project “Meson-Exchange Enhancement of First-Forbidden Beta Transitions in the Lead Region”, the measurements of angular distribution of emitted β-particles allowed to determine experimentally the “meson-exchange currents” contribution to the β-decay. In the project “Isospin Mixing in NZ nuclei”, the isospin-forbidden β-transitions of the nuclei in region (A=50–100) were studied in order to obtain information on the isospin structure of the nuclear states. A new project looking for the possible presence of the tensor currents contribution to the β-decay is being prepared for the CERN-ISOLDE facility.     

The control system of the CERN-ISOLDE on-line mass-separator facility

With the move of the ISOLDE facility to the PS-Booster from the now closed Synchro-Cyclotron at CERN, a new control system will be implemented for the two separators. Personal computers, based on the Intel 80386 microprocessor running under MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows, are used. Network-wide distributed front end computers, which access the hardware for controls and measurements, are controlled by PC-consoles via a local area network with a PC file server used as a database.