1. Experiments and technical news:
HRS:
· During the technical stop on Monday and Tuesday last week 224Ra was used for studies at MINIBALL.
· With the protons back on Wednesday MINIBALL measured 97, 99Rb. With this all odd-mass isotopes 93, 95, 97, 99Rb from IS493 proposal have been studied successfully this year.
· In the weekend the CRIS experiment used a beam from ISOLDE for the first time. They achieved 100% transmission into the apparatus. Further optimization is needed to improve the transmission to the last section. Such is foreseen for Sunday this week.
· A new UCx target was put in place this Monday, to be used by IS447. HRS did not hold 40kV. After purging the extraction electrode by placing it close to the target the conditions seemingly improved and voltage in excess of 50kV could be applied. Unfortunately occasional sparks still occur, which seems to influence vacuum gauges, which in turn confuse the PVSS vacuum control system and trigger a shutdown of the target. To avoid further problems the beam energy has been lowered to 40keV.
· For IS447, the MINIORANGE setup has been installed at LA1, with the aim to study neutron-rich gold isotopes. Yield measurements are foreseen for today, which should also determine the production of 30Na needed for studies at MINIBALL. The experiment will continue until Sunday morning when the target will start cooling down and CRIS will take over for further tests.
· The RF amplifier of ISCOOL broke on Tuesday evening and had to be replaced on Wednesday morning. Transmission through the RFQ has been recovered after the intervention.
GPS:
· High-voltage problems seem to persist at both front-ends. A Mossbauer experiment required 50kV in order to use that experimental technique, which was not possible. Consequently, it was decided to exchange the extraction electrode. Richard Catherall performed the intervention, thus using a considerable part of his yearly dose allowance. After the intervention, it was possible to apply 40kV without sparks and this proved to be sufficient for the Mossbauer technique. Consequently, the experiment on Mn was very successful. The first studies with In were not successful due to low yields just before the target broke on Monday evening, compared to good yields measured on Friday.
· During the extraction-electrode exchange on Thursday, the robot in the target area failed to start. The problem was due to a battery and the successful intervention took place on Friday.
· GPS.FC490, which was getting recently stuck in the beamline, has been replaced.
· It has been decided to introduce a timeout of the commands sent to the valves separating ISOLDE from the experiments. There will be also a 1e-5 mbar interlock threshold for GHM, which should solve a problem related to automatic closing and opening of valves.
2. A.O.B:
· The webpage of ISOLDE has been renovated. However, there is a demand for publishing some general information of the available research topics for the benefit of the community visiting the “Isolde web”. Yorick Blumenfeld requested one-page contributions from members of the permanent experiments at ISOLDE: MINIBALL (Janne Pakarinen), ISOLTRAP (Susanne Kreim), COLLAPS (Deyan Yordanov), CRIS (Kieran Flanagan), Solid-state physics (Karl Johnston), WITCH (Martin Breitenfeld).
· There will be a physics coffee on Friday. The topic will be Icelandic volcanoes.
3. Summer-student presentations:
· Erick Bosne presented his work on TimePix detectors for alpha particles and doubly-ionized helium.
Minutes by DTY