A high-intensity He-jet production source for radioactive beams and weak interaction investigations

A thin-target He-jet system suited to the production and rapid transport of non-volatile radioactive species has been successfully operated with proton beam intensities of up to 700 {mu}A. The system consists of: (1) an aggressively water-cooled cylindrical target chamber on the inside of which a thin layer of {sup 238}U{sub 2}O{sub 3} has been electroplated; (2) several differentially pumped capillary tubes which transport the activity to a collection tape transport system located {approx}30 m away; (3) a high-purity Ge gamma-ray detection system to assay the transported activities; and (4) a gas recirculation system. The linear scaling of the transported activities with beam intensity from 10 to 700 {mu}A has been demonstrated. The yields of a wide variety of radionuclides with half-lives ranging from seconds to days have been measured. He-jet transport and collection efficiencies for many of those species have been determined to range from 15 to 25% depending on He target pressure, flow rates, and aerosol conditions. Typical transport time of {approx}2 sec have been measured. With production rates of 10{sup 7} to 10{sup 8} atoms/sec/isotope, the thin-target He-jet represents a robust production source for nonvolatile radioactive beams, and for future {Beta}-asymmetry and atomic PNC measurements using an opticalmore » trap.« less