First test of SPES Laser Ion source in collaboration with ISOLDE-CERN

by Dr Lisa Centofante (INFN-LNL), Dr Omorjit Singh Khwairakpam (Università degli Studi di Siena)

Thursday 23 Mar 2023, 14:30 → 16:30 Europe/Rome

M. Ceolin

The SPES Laser Ion source was tested at the CERN-ISOLDE Offline 2 during the period 15th January- 10th of February 2023. During the tests, two elements viz. Sm and Ga were used to study the behavior of the tantalum ion source. The ion source has shown great durability and maintained a high level of performance for more than two weeks, even after numerous heating and cooling cycles. Time structure measurements (a way to investigate the ions arriving in the time interval between two laser pulses i.e., 100 µs) were performed. These measurements were made for several combinations of different ion source temperature and total ion currents (regulated by K to simulate the contaminants in the ion source). They exhibit very good confinement of laser ions, not only inside the hot cavity of the ion source but also in the transfer line.
Laser enhancement ratios (LERs), which is basically the ratio of collected isotope with laser on/off, were measured in a similar fashion. For ion source temperature at 2000 degrees and above, the ratios showed negligible dependence on the total ion current. The behavior is very different for ion source temperature at 1800 degrees, where it shows a much higher LER value at low total ion current and rapidly drops at higher total ion current. It reflects a significant drop in the transverse confinement field of the laser ion provided by the Ta ion source as the contaminants increase.

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https://infn-it.zoom.us/j/83213187853?pwd=dlZiSUZJZnlQQ1RGdm5rNlJOMjA4Zz09

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