Current status of the Daresbury isotope separator

A high resolution isotope separator has been constructed at the SERC nuclear structure facility at Daresbury, principally for nuclear structure research. The separator may either be used on-line to the NSF tandem Van de Graaff accelerator to separate short-lived products of nuclear reactions or off-line to separate longer lived stable or radioactive samples. A high temperature FEBIAD ion source is used in the former mode of operation, while for off-line studies one of two Freeman ion sources may be used. Extraction voltages of up to 30 kV are possible with post acceleration up to a total energy of 100 keV. A 60° sector magnet is used to separate different isotopic ion species which are subsequently transported via an electrostatic switchyard to a dilution refrigerator for ion implantation nuclear orientation studies or to an atomic oven, which is used in conjunction with a tunable dye-laser, for atomic hyperfine structure experiments. This paper reviews the current status of the Daresbury Isotope Separator and its experimental programme