The CARIBU gas catcher

Abstract

The CARIBU upgrade of the ATLAS facility provides radioactive beams of neutron-rich isotopes for experiments at low and Coulomb barrier energies. It creates these beam using a large RF gas catcher that collects and cools fission fragments from an intense 252Cf fission source and transforms them into a low-emittance monoenergetic beam. This beam can then be purified, reaccelerated and delivered to experiments. This technique is fast and universal, providing access to all fission fragment species independently of their chemical properties. The CARIBU gas catcher has been built to operate at high ionization density and in the presence of the contamination from the source. A brief overview of the CARIBU concept is given below, together with a more detailed description of the CARIBU gas catcher and the performance it has now achieved.