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The Transnational Access facility ALTO (TNA07-ENSAR/FP7) has been commissioned and received from the French safety authorities, the operation license. It is allowed to run at nominal intensity to produce 1011 fissions/s in a thick uranium carbide target by photo-fission using a 10 μA, 50 MeV electron beam. In addition the recent success in operating the selective laser ion source broadens the physics program with neutron-rich nuclear beams possible at this facility installed at IPN Orsay. The facility also aims at being a test bench for the SPIRAL2 project. In that framework an ambitious R&D program on the target ion source system is being developed.

International audience; In the context of radioactive ion beams, fission targets, often based on uranium compounds, have been used for more than 50 years at isotope separator on line facilities. The development of several projects of second generation facilities aiming at intensities two or three orders of magnitude higher than today puts an emphasis on the properties of the uranium fission targets. A study, driven by Institut de Physique Nucléaire d'Orsay (IPNO), has been started within the SPIRAL2 project to try and fully understand the behavior of these targets. In this paper, we have focused on five uranium carbide based targets. We present an off-line method to characterize their fission product release and the results are examined in conjunction with physical characteristics of each material such as the microstructure, the porosity and the chemical composition.

In the framework of the PARRNe program (Production d’Atomes Radioactifs Riches en Neutrons) of IPN Orsay, various techniques are currently used to characterize the release properties of elements of interest from a UCX target. On-line studies have been carried out with two plasma ion sources: a Nier–Bernas and a hot plasma ISOLDE-type (the ISOLDE collaboration kindly supplied us a MK5 ion source for these studies). In parallel, the analysis of the chemical and structure properties of some UCX samples as function of heating conditions has been carried out. Such data are essential to determine optimal conditions for the production of isotopes by the isotope separator on-line (ISOL) technique. First results are presented here for Kr and Ag. Investigations for other kinds of fission targets are planned.

The release properties of UCx and molten U thick targets associated with a Nier–Bernas ion source have been studied. Two experimental methods are used to extract the release time. Results are presented and discussed for Kr, Cd, I and Xe.

International audience; The Andromede project is the center of a multi-disciplinary team which will build a new instrument for surface modification and analysis using the impact of probes from hydrogen to nano-particles (Au400+4) in the MeV range. For this new instrument a series of atomic, polyatomic, molecular and nano-particle ion beams will be delivered using two ion sources in tandem, a liquid metal ion source and an electron cyclotron resonance source. The delivered ion beams will be accelerated to high energy with a 4 MeV van de Graaff type accelerator. By using a suite of probes in the MeV energy range, ion beam analysis techniques, MeV atomic and cluster secondary ion mass spectrometry can all be performed in one location. A key feature of the instrument is its ability to produce an intense beam for injection into the accelerator. The commissioning of the two sources shows that intense beams from atomic ions to nano-particles can be delivered for subsequent acceleration. The calculations and measurements for the two sources are presented.

The latest results of the research and development program Production d'Atomes Radioactifs Riches en Neutrons (PARRNe) at Institut de Physique Nucleaire (IPN) Orsay are presented. The production of neutron rich isotopes by fast neutron induced fission in a liquid depleted uranium target was measured. A comparison of the production rates with a uranium carbide (UCx) target is given.

Single crystals of LiNbO 3 (Y-cut orientation) were irradiated at room temperature with 3 MeV C 6 + and 2.4 MeV C 8 + clusters provided by CSNSM “ARAMIS” accelerator. The electronic stopping power was about 6.5 keV nm −1 in both cases. The fluences extended from 10 10 to 4 × 10 12 C 6 + or C 8 + cm −2 . Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry in Channeling geometry (RBS/C) revealed the presence of extended defects, which cannot be due solely to nuclear stopping and which we ascribe to the high density of electronic energy associated with the correlated electronic stopping of the cluster components. The RBS/C analysis, providing a lattice disorder profile, confirms this interpretation: the damaged thickness closely corresponds to the cluster components correlation length (between 50 and 100 nm). The fluence evolutions of the disorder ratio, measured at the sample surface for C 6 and C 8 projectiles, correspond to damage cross sections close to 1.8 × 10 −13 cm 2 in the two cases.

Aramis is a home built multipurpose 2 MV electrostatic tandem accelerator. A large variety of ions are available for high energy implantation. Characterization possibilities are also quite large in the Van de Graaff mode owing to the Penning positive ion source in the terminal. A second beam line is now available that sends the beam into the target chamber of the 200 kV medium current implanter. We will provide a progress report on the machine and present some results regarding in situ studies of multilayer mixing and implanted silicide layers

NESTER ACC; The release properties of a UCx thick target associated with a hot plasma ion source have been studied. Measurements have been performed for various elements: Kr, Ag, Sn, I and Xe. The analysis is made assuming pure diffusion or pure effusion as the release processes. The results obtained are compared to the data available in the literature.

Recent isotope separations at the electromagnetic separator PARIS [1] for the preparation of thin targets of highly enriched isotopes with thicknesses up to the region of mg/cm2 are examined. Problems related to chemical purity, deposition rate, sputtering of the target and internal stress in the target are described along with the techniques used to overcome them. These techniques involve the choice of the charge material, the deposition in the separator of a protective film on the target, atomic mixing in the target and the use of a liquid nitrogen trap in the collector box.