production of ionic and atomic beams of alkaline elements

Abstract An on-line mass spectrometer has been developed and used to perform atomic and nuclear spectroscopy on long series of alkali isotopes including nuclei far from stability. The apparatus was on-line either to the ISOLDE mass separator or directly to the PS, proton beam. In the case of atomic spectroscopy, a thermal atomic beam is needed. As ISOLDE delivers 60 keV ions, a high efficiency “ion-to-atom coverter” has been developed. In all cases, an “ionizer” is required to produce 10 keV ions for the ion source of the mass spectrometer. These two special devices are described, their efficiency and the consequent delay times discussed. The different targets which have been developed for the PS experiment are presented and the available yields and release times are compared.