Alberto Monetti

Ongoing characterization of the forced electron beam induced arc discharge ion source for the selective production of exotic species facility

An intense research and development activity to finalize the design of the target ion source system for the selective production of exotic species (SPES) facility (operating according to the isotope separation on line technique) is at present ongoing at Legnaro National Laboratories. In particular, the characterization of ion sources in terms of ionization efficiency and transversal emittance is currently in progress, and a preliminary set of data is already available. In this work, the off-line ionization efficiency and emittance measurements for the SPES forced electron beam induced arc discharge ion source in the case of a stable Ar beam are presented in detail.

Radiation resistance of elastomeric O-rings in mixed neutron and gamma fields: Testing methodology and experimental results

Materials and components employed in the presence of intense neutron and gamma fields are expected to absorb high dose levels that may induce deep modifications of their physical and mechanical properties, possibly causing loss of their function. A protocol for irradiating elastomeric materials in reactor mixed neutron and gamma fields and for testing the evolution of their main mechanical and physical properties with absorbed dose has been developed. Four elastomeric compounds used for vacuum O-rings, one fluoroelastomer polymer (FPM) based and three ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber (EPDM) based, presently available on the market have been selected for the test. One EPDM is rated as radiation resistant in gamma fields, while the other elastomers are general purpose products. Particular care has been devoted to dosimetry calculations, since absorbed dose in neutron fields, unlike pure gamma fields, is strongly dependent on the material composition and, in particular, on the hydrogen content. The products have been tested up to about 2 MGy absorbed dose. The FPM based elastomer, in spite of its lower dose absorption in fast neutron fields, features the largest variations of properties, with a dramatic increase in stiffness and brittleness. Out of the three EPDM based compounds, one shows large and rapid changes in the main mechanical properties, whereas the other two feature more stable behaviors. The performance of the EPDM rated as radiation resistant in pure gamma fields does not appear significantly better than that of the standard product. The predictive capability of the accelerated irradiation tests performed as well as the applicable concepts of threshold of radiation damage is discussed in view of the use of the examined products in the selective production of exotic species facility, now under construction at the Legnaro National Laboratories of the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare. It results that a careful account of dose rate effects and oxygen penetration in the material, both during test irradiations and in operating conditions, is needed to obtain reliable predictions.

Spes: An intense source of Neutron-Rich Radioactive Beams at Legnaro

The Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) method for the production of Radioactive Ion Beams (RIB) is attracting significant interest in the worldwide nuclear physics community. Within this context the SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) RIB facility is now under construction at INFN LNL (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro). This technique is established as one of the main techniques for high intensity and high quality beams production. The SPES facility will produce n-rich isotopes by means of a 40 MeV proton beam, emitted by a cyclotron, impinging on a uranium carbide multi-foil fission target. The aim of this work is to describe the most important results obtained by the study of the on-line behavior of the SPES production target assembly. This target system will produce RIBs at a rate of about 1013 fissions per second, it will be able to dissipate a total power of up to 10 kW, and it is planned to work continuously for 2 week-runs of irradiation. ISOL beams of 24 different elements will be produced, therefore a target and ion source development is ongoing to ensure a great variety of produced isotopes and to improve the beam intensity and purity.

The SPES surface ionization source

Ion sources and target systems play a crucial role in isotope separation on line facilities, determining the main characteristics of the radioactive ion beams available for experiments. In the context of the selective production of exotic species (SPES) facility, a 40 MeV, 200 μA proton beam directly impinges a uranium carbide target, generating approximately 1013 fissions per second. The radioactive isotopes produced by the 238U fissions are delivered to the 1+ ion source by means of a tubular transfer line. Here they can be ionized and subsequently accelerated toward the experimental areas. In this work, the characterization of the surface ionization source currently adopted for the SPES facility is presented, taking as a reference ionization efficiency and transversal emittance measurements. The effects of long term operation at high temperature are also illustrated and discussed.

Photo-ionization of aluminum in a hot cavity for the selective production of exotic species project

SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) is an Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) based accelerator facility that will be built in the Legnaro-Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Laboratory (Italy), intended to provide intense neutron-rich radioactive ion beams obtained by proton-induced fission of a uranium carbide (UCx) target. Besides this main target material, silicon carbide (SiC) will be the first to be used to deliver p-rich beams. This target will also validate the functionality of the SPES facility with aluminum beam as result of impinging SiC target with proton beam. In the past, off line studies on laser photoionization of aluminum have been performed in Pavia Spectroscopy Laboratory and in Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro; a XeCl excimer laser was installed in order to test the laser ionization in the SPES hot cavity. With the new Wien filter installed a better characterization of the ionization process in terms of efficiency was performed and results are discussed.

SPES: EXOTIC BEAMS FOR NUCLEAR PHYSICS STUDIES

The SPES project at Laboratori di Legnaro of INFN (Italy) is concentrating on the production of neutron-rich radioactive nuclei for nuclear physics experiments using uranium fission at a rate of 1013 fission/s. The emphasis on neutron-rich isotopes is justified by the fact that this vast territory has been little explored. The Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) will be produced by the ISOL technique using proton induced fission on a direct target of UCx. The most critical element of the SPES project is the Multi-Foil Direct Target. Up to the present time, the proposed target represents an innovation in terms of its capability to sustain the primary beam power. This talk will present the status of the project financed by INFN, which is actually in the construction phase at Legnaro. In particular, developments related to the target and the ion-source activities using the surface ion source, plasma ion source, and laser ion source techniques will be reported.

Implementation of the ANSYS® commercial suite on the EGI grid platform

This paper describes and discusses the implementation, in a high-throughput computing environment, of the ANSYS® commercial suite. ANSYS® implements the calculations in a way which can be ported onto parallel architectures efficiently and for this reason the User Support Unit of the Italian Grid Initiative (IGI) and the INFN-Legnaro National Laboratories (INFN-LNL) worked together to implement a Grid enabled version of the ANSYS® code using the IGI Portal, a powerful and easy to use gateway to distributed computing and storage resources. The collaboration focused on the porting of the code onto the EGI Grid environment for the benefit of the involved community and for those communities interested in exploiting production Grid infrastructures in the same way.

UCx target preparations and characterizations

The Target-Ion Source unit is the core of an ISOL-RIB facility. Many international ISOL facilities have chosen different layouts of this unit. Many research groups are involved in research and development of targets capable of dissipating high power and, at the same time, be able to have a fast isotope release. This is mandatory in order to produce beams of short half-life isotopes. The research of new materials with advanced microstructural features is crucial in this field. The design of a proper target is indeed strictly related to the obtainment of porous refractory materials, which are capable to work under extreme conditions (temperatures up to 2000 °C in high vacuum) with a high release efficiency. For SPES, the second generation Italian ISOL-RIB Facility, the target will be made of uranium carbide (UCx) in which, by fission induced by a proton beam of 40 MeV of energy (8 kW of power), isotopes in the 60-160 amu mass region are produced. The current technological developments are also crucial in th...

The SPES RIB Production Complex

SPES [1] is a second-generation ISOL RIB facility [2] of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN laboratory, Legnaro, Italy) actually in construction phase. The main goal is to provide intense neutron-rich Radioactive Ion Beams directly impinging a UCx target with a proton beam of 40 MeV and current up to 0.2 mA. The production target follows an innovative approach which consists in a target configuration able to keep high the number of fissions, up to 1013 per second, low power deposition and fast release of the produced isotopes. The exotic isotopes generated in the target are then ionized, mass separated and re-accelerated by the ALPI [3] superconducting LINAC at energies of 10 AMeV and higher, for masses in the region of A=130 amu, with an expected rate on the secondary target up to 10^9 particles per second In this work, we will present the recent results on the R&D activities regarding the SPES RIB production complex (see Fig.1).