An Accelerator Facility for Fundamental Research, Based on the LUE-8-5RV Linear Electron Accelerator

Abstract

The recent interest in investigating photonuclear reactions near the threshold (at electron and photon energies below 10 MeV) requires electron beams with the improved properties. In this work, results are presented from studies conducted on the LUE-8-5RV linear electron accelerator at the Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences. These investigations allow the generation of an electron beam whose energies can be adjusted in the range of 4–10 MeV with energy resolution (FWHM) from 1% at currents of up to 6 μA and 10% at maximum currents of up to 300 μA with a repetition rate of 300 s−1 and a pulse width of 3 μs. High-resolution beams are obtained using a magnetic beam-forming system with beam deflection of 270°. A series of experiments on, e.g., exciting isomeric nuclei in the region of pygmy resonances and measuring electron-to-positron conversion near the threshold for a number of nuclei, are performed.