ISOL techniques, present status and new developments

Abstract

On-line mass separation has recently gained extra momentum due to two extremes of applications. On the one side, beams from on-line mass separators have been decelerated in order to inject them in ion traps for precise experiments. On the other side, beams from on-line mass separators have been post-accelerated in order to use the secondary beam for nuclear reaction studies. Both applications put stringent requirements on the ISOL beams. These requirements relate to: • the element range of the beam, including refractory elements; • to the time span of the separated isotopes, down to the millisecond region; • to the intensity of the beam, dealing with high-intensity targets; • to the charge state of the beam, breeding it up from 1 + to n +; • to the purity of the beam, in mass as well as element selection; • and to the ion-optical quality, related to energy as well as time. This contribution deals with the recent developments in each direction and will give an outlook for further studies. Special emphasis is put on the use of dense, noble gases for thermalization, storage and transport of short-living ions and on the use of selective laser ionization.