Production of an 8.0 MeV 7Be ion beam at the Naples TTT-3 accelerator

For an improved determination of the 7Be(p, γ)8B absolute cross section, the reaction is studied in inverse kinematics. The study involves a 7Be radioactive ion beam of 8.0 MeV, a windowless H2 gas target, and an efficient recoil separator for the detection of the 8B residual nuclides. The techniques used to produce such a beam as well as the first direct observation of 8B are reported.