Production of High-Intensity, Highly Charged Ions

In the past three decades, the development of nuclear physics facilities for fundamental and applied science purposes has required an increasing current of multicharged ion beams. Multiple ionization implies the formation of dense and energetic plasmas, which, in turn, requires specific plasma trapping configurations. Two types of ion source have been able to produce very high charge states in a reliable and reproducible way: electron beam ion sources (EBIS) and electron cyclotron resonance ion sources (ECRIS). Multiple ionization is also obtained in laser-generated plasmas (laser ion sources (LIS)), where the high-energy electrons and the extremely high electron density allow step-by-step ionization, but the reproducibility is poor. This chapter discusses the atomic physics background at the basis of the production of highly charged ions and describes the scientific and technological features of the most advanced ion sources. Particular attention is paid to ECRIS and the latest developments, since they now represent the most effective and reliable machines for modern accelerators.Comment: 42 pages, contribution to the CAS-CERN Accelerator School: Ion Sources, Senec, Slovakia, 29 May - 8 June 2012, edited by R. Baile

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation's Tropical Disease Research Program: A 25-Year Retrospective Review 1976-1999

Documents and details the foundation's commitment to the program from its inception, and provides an analysis of its successes until the completion of the program in 1999

Ion Sources for Medical Applications

Ion sources are key components of accelerators devoted to different types of medical applications: hadron-therapy facilities (accelerating protons or carbon ions), high-intensity accelerators for boron-neutron capture therapy (using intense proton beams), and facilities for isotope production (using different ion species). The three types of application present different requirements in terms of ion beam quality, reproducibility, and beam availability. Different characteristics of ion sources will be described, along with the reasons why they are particularly interesting or largely used.Comment: 12 pages, Presented at the CAS- CERN Accelerator School on Accelerators for Medical Application, V\"osendorf, Austria, 26 May - 5 June, 201

Comparison of the charge state distributions of electron cyclotron resonance ion sources working in high B mode at different frequencies

The behavior of the two superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion sources of Michigan State University-National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and of INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, operating respectively at 6.4 and 14 GHz is compared in this note. The charge state distributions present a similar shape, when both the sources are optimized for the production of high charge state ions. The beam intensity is roughly proportional to the square of the frequency which may be explained by the difference in plasma density

The Italian contribution to the construction of the linac for the European spallation source

AbstractThe European spallation source (ESS) uses a linear accelerator (linac) to deliver the high intensity proton beam to the target station for producing intense beams of neutrons. At the exit of the linac, the proton beam will have 2 GeV energy and 62.5 mA current. The construction of an accelerator with the contribution of different laboratories is not a new concept but so far the laboratories were controlled by the same government (e.g. in USA and Japan) or they delivered components for an intergovernmental institution like CERN. The European Spallation Source is a research facility that gathers 40 active in-kind (IK) contributors from 13 States, even outside the European Union, so its construction is not only a technical and scientific challenge, but also an economic, political and social experiment. The case of the Italian contribution is interesting because of the structure of Italian industrial ecosystem, mostly based on small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), which may be unsuitable for the case of a research infrastructure which construction requires a high level of R&D investments. Conversely, the well-known flexibility of SME to adapt to the requirements have balanced the weakness and the results are satisfactory. Following the overview of the Linac design, the paper will focus on the key issues of the Italian contribution, the state of the project (73% completion up to now) along with the point of view of the ESS management and the lesson learnt; the major outcomes for the economy and society will complete the discussion

Electrospun polymeric nanohybrids with outstanding pollutants adsorption and electroactivity for water treatment and sensing devices

Graphene oxide (GO) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were loaded at different mutual ratios into poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-co-HFP) matrix and electrospun to construct mats that were assessed as smart sorbents for decontaminating water from methylene blue (MB) pollutant, while ensuring the additional possibility of detecting the dye amounts. The results revealed that sorption capacity enhances upon increasing GO content, which is beneficial to wettability and active area. Equilibrium adsorption of these materials is precisely predicted by the Langmuir isotherm model and the maximum capacities herein achieved, ranging from 120 to 555 mg/g depending on the formulation, are higher than those reported for similar systems. The evolution of the structure and properties of such materials as a function of dye adsorption was studied. The results reveal that MB molecules prompted the increase of electrical conductivity of the samples in a dose-dependent manner. Mats containing solely CNTs, while displaying the worst sorption performance, showed the highest electrical performances, displaying interesting changes in their electrical response as a function of the dye amount adsorbed, with a linear response and high sensitivity (309.4 mu S cm-1 mg-1) in the range 0-235 mu g of dye adsorbed. Beyond the possibility to monitor the presence of small amounts of MB in contaminated water and the saturation state of sorbents, this feature could even be exploited to transform waste sorbents into high-added value products, including flexible sensors for detecting low values of pressure, human motion, and so on

Study of charge state enhancement by means of the coupling of a Laser Ion Source to the ECR ion source SERSE

The possibility to produce intense ion beams from solid elements, by using a pulsed Laser ion source as the first stage of the superconducting ECR ion source SERSE is discussed in the following. The Laser ion source may be used to produce negative or positive ions and electrons that are injected into the plasma of SERSE. The design of the experimental setup and the study of the extraction of ions from a target by means of Nd:Yag laser irradiation are briefly described. This Laser ion source will be located in the plasma chamber of the source SERSE, in presence of its magnetic field. A simple evaluation of the charge state enhancement inside the ECR plasma is also presented in the following