Minutes of the ISOLDE Physics Group Meeting, 13.11.2014

Comments to the minutes of the ISOLDE Physics Group Meeting of the 05.11.2014 by Frank Wienholtz:

• ISOLTRAP run during the weekend with UCx target to do Chromium and Scandium masses
• The transfer line just broke before the extreme temperature Sc Cr release test finished.
• Target change, UCx with neutron converter and Ta line for Zn isotopes for ISOLTRAP, COLLAPS and CRIS.

TECHNICAL NEWS:

• GPS
  
  • During the last week the target #527 TiC Re-surf was mounted on GPS to deliver ³⁷K beam to LA1 for precise life-time measurements. Users were quite happy with the available yields and the collected statistics.
  • At the end of the run, target tests have been carried out to investigate the production of ^35,38Ca. The production of ³⁸Ca, also in the molecular form M=57 (³⁸Ca¹⁹F) was found very low.
  • Target change on Wednesday 12^th November. New target is the #526 LaC2 Re-surf. It is expected to delivery neutron-deficient Ba isotopes. It will be mainly devoted to target tests and yield checks, and if production yields allow, to some physics in IDS.
  • RILIS will operate from Monday on, on Ba to check the effect of single/double ionization on the production yields.
• HRS
  
  • Target change on Thursday 06^th November. The new target is #521 UC for physics at COLLAPS.
  • HRS laser window was exchanged on the same day. It has been found pretty coated. The old window is being analysed by Alexandre Dorsival with gamma-spectroscopy.
  • HV, Target and line heating went off on 10^th November due to a sudden increase of the vacuum pressure in the HRS20 sector. Reason not fully clear, it might be due to a wrong alignment of the lasers which were hitting the extraction electrode and causing de-gazing.
  • On 10^th November for a couple of hours a target for MEDICIS has been placed behind the HRS target-converter. Air-activation and HV recovery tests with protons on the converter have been performed.
• RILIS
  
  • The power supply of the Ti:Sa pump laser sent for repair should come back in the next days. According to the company, the damage was caused by a malfunctioning of the UPS unit. 
• ISCOOL
  
  • ISCOOL behaves quite stable: in no-bunching mode, 100% transmission was achieved and 50% in bunching-mode (comparing FC in front and behind).

GENERAL ISOLDE HALL:

• Building 508: on 13^th November the safety check.

SAFETY

• According to the new rules of safety, all no-permanent setups (i.e. travelling experiments) will undergo safety checks: cryogenics, electrical and chemical aspects will be evaluated and the inspection summary will be delivered to the users.  The setup of the IS527 experiment mounted at LA1 has been the first to do the safety check, and it went pretty smoothly.
• During the air activation tests of the MEDICIS target, with the protons on the converter, the radiation alarm in the RILIS room went on (20uSv/h). The threshold was temporarily increased.
• The course on Habilitation Electrique will take place from 21^st to 23^rd January 2015

The meeting was followed by the seminar of Dr. Jakob Bierwagen (Université de Genève) "Super-resolution microscopy – the way to diffraction unlimited imaging".  

 http://indico.cern.ch/event/351873/

Meeting next week – on Thursday 20^th November 2014, at 14:00. Seminar next week by ER.

Minutes taken by ER