Recent developments on Octopus

Louvain-la-Neuve's ECRIS Octopus has been used intensively both by nuclear and atomic physicists since it became operational in September 1985. So much so that very little time was left for improvements. There have however been several developments worth mentioning: the 18 cm-bore octupolar structure has been replaced by a 24 cm-bore, 12 bars hexapole in order to increase the plasma volume while testing the effects of a lower multipole number with a larger bore. A recurrent water leak problem related to the plasma overheating of an o-ring has been solved by adding a water-cooled copper shield in the second stage. This problem pointed out some weakness in one of the magnet bars. A sapphire sealed variable leak valve has been installed on the second stage to run rare gaseous isotopes. On this occasion some interesting gas flow-rate and gas efficiency data were gathered. This paper ends with a brief survey of Octopus' current level of performance and a description of future projects now taking shape in Louvain-la-Neuve.