1. Technical news:
· At HRS the UC target with a rhenium ionizing cavity for enhanced surface ionization worked very well during last week.
· In cases the beams from the above target had to be attenuated for the CRIS experiment using the HRS slits. At one point there was a problem with the slits control. Erwin has written a procedure how to recover their operation (attached on the inside of the rack door).
· Penning gauges in the RFQ section gave a false bad-vacuum signal during the CRIS run. The reason is not clear. This tripped the RFQ power supplies. After resetting the gauges in the pvss vacuum control program the RFQ was restored. The UC target at HRS has since been replaced by a SiC target for a run on beta-delayed spectroscopy on 20Mg.
· A CaO cold plasma target was installed on Monday at GPS. Proton scan was done on Monday afternoon and yield checks followed until 5am. The nanomaterial used is a subject of a master thesis in the target group. The yield of 35Ar is very good and should benefit the WITCH experiment which is currently using that beam.
· There is a factor of two difference in readout between FC490 and FC558 on GPS. The cause is being investigated.
· RILIS successfully worked on astatine ionization. They looked for Rydberg states and measured with a better precision the ionization potential.
2.Physics and schedule:
· CRIS successfully ionized 207Fr commissioning many aspects of the technique and the apparatus. Alpha decay measurements were also performed on the cleaner laser-ionized 207Fr beam.
· The bio-NMR experiment was tested with stable beam: about 10% beam reaches the liquid drop inside the COLLAPS NMR magnet.
3.Safety:
· There will be a safety visit at CERN on Nov 21-st by tri-partite authorities (the French , the Swiss and CERN). They will most probably also visit ISOLDE (to be confirmed only on the day of the visit). Make sure your setup is in order and be careful with the use of radioactive sources. Everybody is urged to return unused radioactive sources and to announce the used ones accordingly. In addition all carton and wooden boxes must be removed from the hall by this Friday afternoon (Nov 11).
· A diagnostics box in front of MINIBALLwas investigated for possible contamination hazards. It was determined that only 0.001% of the radioactive material is on the surface and can be removed from the surface during handling. The rest is implanted deep enough. Obviously this is not valid for the low-energy beam lines.
· The chemical store next to the visitor’s room will obtain a restricted access status. People who store chemical there and will need the access, please, contact Magda (not more than 2-3 people for an experiment).
4.A.O.B.
· The online period will start on April 2next year and continues until end of November.
· We are encouraged to attend the Rutherford Centennial Colloquium on “The Discovery of the Atomic Nucleus” (Nov 15 - Main auditorium).
· The ISOLDE workshop conference dinner is planned to happen in Bois Joly - Crozet. If you have an idea for an entertainment after the dinner, please, let Yorick, Magda or Thomas know about it.
5. Seminars:
· Mark Bissell presented “Mean Square Charge Radii from Optical Isotope Shifts - Recent Measurements and Interpretation”.
· For more information and links to the slides please visit the ISOLDE - seminars page.
Minutes by DTY