Status of the Louisiana accelerator center

The Louisiana Accelerator Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette houses National Electrostatics Corporation’s 1.7 MV Tandem Pelletron® Accelerator with Cs sputter ion, duoplasmatron, and rf charge exchange ion sources. The machine has been stable for many years, mostly producing beams of protons and 4He ions. Despite heavy use, necessary maintenance has been confined to servicing the ion source, vacuum pumps, and one tank opening. To support the development of new experimental programs, the Oxford triplet MeV ion microprobe has been reconfigured and upgraded. This includes direct, and off-axis STIM detection capabilities, Amptek SDD X-ray detector, OMDAQ2007 data collection software, and GeoPIXE™ data analysis. The ion implantation beamline was also upgraded with cryo-pumping and a Kelvin probe developed to measure ion bombardment induced changes in surface potential. Radiation exposure during space activities is a persistent theme in the work of the Center. A new beamline has been constructed...