Radioactive ion beam facilities at INFN LNS

Abstract

Radioactive ion beams are produced at INFN- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS) by means of the two operating accelerators, the Tandem and the Superconducting Cyclotron (CS), originally designed to accelerate stable beams. Both the ISOL (Isotope Separation On Line) and the IFF (In-Flight Fragmentation) methods are exploited to produce RIBs in two different ways at different energies: in the first case, the Cyclotron is the primary accelerator and the Tandem accelerates the secondary beams, while in the second case radioactive fragments are produced by the Cyclotron beam in a thin target with energies comparable to the primary beam energy. The ISOL facility is named EXCYT (Exotics at the Cyclotron and Tandem) and was commissioned in 2006, when the first radioactive beam (8Li) has been produced. The IFF installation is named FRIBs (in Flight Radioactive Ion Beams), and it has started to produce radioactive beams in 2001, placing a thin target in the extraction beam line of the Cyclotron. The development of both facilities to produce and accelerate radioactive ion beams at LNS, is briefly described, with some details on the future prospects that are presently under consideration or realization.