METHOD FOR EFFICIENCY AND TIME RESPONSE MEASUREMENT ON DIVERSE TARGET ION SOURCES WITH STABLE ALKALI

Developments of new setups for radioactive ion beam production by the isotope-separator-on-line (ISOL) method are underway at GANIL in the frame of the SPIRAL (Système de Production d’Ions Radioactifs Accélérés en Ligne) and SPIRAL-II projects. The measurement of total efficiency and time behaviour of these new target/ion-source systems (TISSs) is a crucial step for these devices which aims to produce short-lived isotopes with high intensity. The overall atom-to-ion transformation efficiency depends on several processes: diffusion of the atoms out of the production target, effusion towards the ion source and ionization. The efficiency can be extracted using the ratio between the emerging yield and implanted flux in the TISS. Several methods have already been developed to achieve these measurements: the use of stable or radioactive beams, gas injection, or the introduction of solid material into the TISS. This paper focuses primarily on a method that uses stable alkali. A pulsed/CW alkali ion gun has been built and will be used to optimise diverse TISSs: NanoNaKE [1] a compact multi-charged alkali ion production system for SPIRAL-I; SISTHE a surface ionisation source prototype to study the alkali ion source for SPIRAL-II; and one TISS for SPIRAL-II