Target stability and beam-induced background studies at the LUNA underground facility

Abstract

The underground accelerator facility LUNA2 installed at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso has been used for studies of low cross section nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest, exploiting the strong suppression of cosmic background. The first reaction to be studied using solid state targets is the 14N(p,γ) 15O reaction. In order to minimize the beam induced background, different target preparation procedures with different target backings have been used and the targets have been tested at the LUNA2 facility.