Minutes from REX meeting 2004-11-24

 

Present: Pierre Delahaye, Mats Lindroos (chair), Nikolai Trofimov, Luis Fraile, Thomas Sieber, Romain Savreux, Fredrik Wenander

 

 

General issues

 

* The minutes from the last meeting were approved.

 

* Heiko Scheit’s ‘REX Scientific Report’ was discussed and the point stating an effective beam to the experiment delivery time of 50% was criticised. Mats Lindroos will attend the following Miniball collaboration meeting to clarify this.

 

* An email list for the closest REX-persons has been created to distribute drafts of minutes etc; support-rex@cern.ch.

 

* A summary from a REX operation point-of-view of the Li and Sn runs is attached to the end of these minutes.

 

 

Control system

 

* D. Beck will come down from GSI the 6/12 to assist Romain transferring the REXTRAP control system to the new Labview based system.

 

* Nikolai had two points concerning the REX control system:

a. It is difficult to port the hall probe controls for the dipole magnet controls from PC to UNIX. This would require a significant effort. An alternative solution has to be found as the field regulating feature is needed.

b. Nikolai underlined the need for application software for the coming new REX control system and that the programming should start asap. Mats explained that programming support would be given from the Operator’s group and that he will get in contact with them. At some point Mats, Nikolai, Tim Giles and Jose Marques should meet in the control room to discuss the procedure and a demonstration of the applications and the functionality should take place.

 

* A technical meeting between AB/PO and AB/CO, with representatives from REX, is scheduled for Friday 26/11. Different solutions and strategies for upgrading the REX control system and the power related hardware is to be discussed.

 

* Nikolai will come back with a time estimate for when the REX vacuum system can be remotely controlled from the consoles. The choice of control strategy has to be agreed upon between the vacuum and the control groups. Most likely there will again not be any remote control for the vacuum system from the ISOLDE control room during the next years running period.

 

* Thomas will contact Ivan Deloose so he can reinstall the operation system for the Beam Diagnostic FEC since this is still halting a few times per week during operation.

 

* Romain has taken two old non-used FEC computers and converted them from NT to XP. One to be used at the REXTRAP, the other will act as spare.

 

 

REXTRAP and REXEBIS

 

* The REXTRAP is stopped.

 

* The REXEBIS is under disassembling for next week’s intervention in the cryostat.

 

* The vacuum pumping of the low energy parts (except for the EBIS) will be recommenced after the power cut by the end of the week.

 

* Pierre presented his proposal for a PhD student to work on the low energy part. He’s actively searching founding for an existing candidate.

 

* The LN2 filling of the REXTRAP over Christmas will be carried out by Chabouh Yazidjian.

 

 

LINAC

 

* The Linac is switched off and vented.

 

* Berdermann from the Bertronix company has started rebuilding a new anode capacitor for the 200 MHz amplifier. Should be ready before 1st of March.

 

* Thomas plans to install a setup for emittance measurements with the linac test source at 20 keV in building 275.

 

 

 

Shutdown planning

 

* Mats asked for a single list of shutdown work covering all parts of REX. It should also contain priority ratings and deadlines. This is found on the homepage of the REX minutes. Thomas has already agreed with his section upon a work schedule and priorities.

 

* After the meeting Thomas, Pierre, Fredrik, N David, D Porret and Nikolai discussed the shutdown work.

 

a. Nikolai agreed to order a spare PCI card for the REXEBIS VME. Ivan Deloose has already a couple of offers.

 

b. The worklists related to vacuum and power were shown to N. David and D. Porret. It was agreed on that most of the work will be performed in January.

 

c. All equipment should be back by mid March. The EBIS will not be ready by then due to its complete disassembling; either it will be ready in the beginning of April or in the end depending on Fredrik’s other obligations within his section.

 

d. A major shutdown work is to implement a vacuum interlock for the HT supplies in the BTS and mass separator. N. David and D. Porret will deal with this.

 

e. D. Porret will focus on improving the PLC hardware and programming to improve the reliability and allowing automatic operation of the REX vacuum.

 

f. The question of installation of an extra roughing vacuum balloon was once again raised as REX might be running radioactive Xe with high currents next year. Fredrik will check with TIS and Mats if we can operate 2005 without a balloon without running into complications.

 

 

 

Minutes taken by Fredrik Wenander

 

 

 

 

Li run

 

isotopes run: 9,11Li and stable 7Li

 

run 9Li+ with Ne buffer gas

run 11Li with Ne and Ar buffer gas

 

yields:    1.3E6/uC for 9Li+ from the ISOLDE target

Jacques was guessing 1000 11Li/uC

target=700 to 750 A A, line=300-350 A

 

From the logbook

Target test finished. Count rate on 9Li was 12% down compared to measurements made at the beginning of the run. P-beam scan OK and left at (0A,-17A) Target heating 670A > 6800cts, 700A >7700cts, 730A > 8800cts, 760A > 9500, 790A > 10100cts. Target left at 760A...line heating 340A > 10500cts, 350A > 11000cts, 360A > 11700cts. Line left at 350A and target reduced to 730A when taking 4 pulses at 3E+13ppp. Permission is given to increase target temperature if required...to 760A is OK....790A at your own risk and peril. Release curve made on 9Li.

 

 

breeding time: 5 and 9 ms for 2+ and 3+ respectively.

 

efficiencies:           GPS to REXTRAP >95%

Trap        30-40% for 9Li and Ne gas

10-20% for 11Li and Ar gas

EBIS        7Li2+ 9.3% with 5 ms breeding time

11.6% for 7Li3+ with 16 ms breeding time

5% for 7Li3+ with 8 ms breeding time
(during these tests the Na+ to Na7+ breeding efficiency was down to a modest 8%)

13.5% for 7Li2+ in the end of the run

 

                                With Ar the Trap+EBIS efficiency for 7Li+ was 1.8%

 

Linac      80% but what about the injection efficiency into the Linac for 9,11Li and focussing on the experimental target?

 

current after trap and ebis:                 for 9Li+ 1 pA could be seen after the trap at proton impact

 

technical problems:

* ISOLDE target vented – ion source and trap section affected, restart the trap

* Can not run synchonised with the protons as the Linac will switch off

* Can not run with 100 Hz due to the linac

* Turbo pump in the mass separator switches of regularly

* Even if 18O4+ goes into the RFQ it’s not sure that 9Li2+ follows. Needed to steer with the deflector before the RFQ.

* Also noticed that different mass separator settings, both optimised for some stable beam, give highly different transmission for 9Li2+. The B-field was scanned and correct. How come?

 

comments:             the breeding efficiency went down from 11.6% to 7.4 when the cooling time was decreased from 20 to 10 ms

 

lesson:                   when changing buffer gas the residual peaks disappears completely (<100 fA) after a few minutes

                                with Ar gas pressure higher than 5.7 V one has discharges in the extraction region

 

Sn run

isotopes run:         110Sn27+ radioactive; 112, 118Sn stable (not accelerated)
                       
also delivered stable 27Al and 39K to the experiment after failing 9-gap resonator

yields:                    110Sn 2.5E8/uC, 110In >1E7/uC 110mIn 1-2E7/uC
                                15-30 minutes before it comes into saturation. -REX

breeding time:       98 ms for 110Sn27+

efficiencies:          GPS to REXTRAP >95%
Trap 44% (110Sn)
      (45% for 112Sn)

EBIS 8-10% for 110 pA of 110Sn+ into trap
     (
8-16% for 112Sn)
     (
9.5 to 11.5% for stable 138Ba30+)
Linac
70-80% ??

current after trap and ebis:

110 pA at injection plate trap, 48 pA out of trap and 115 (100-140) pA after EBIS; depending on number of protons

 

technical problems:

200 MHz amplifier broke -> had to run at a lower energy
fluctuating ebeam current; between 150 and 220 mA, correlated with the cathode heating power

 

comments:

Had to decrease the number of protons to 700E10 per pulse.
Used 139La+ and 138Ba+ for stable beam setup.

At least a factor 10 less In than Sn  

 

lesson:   target characterised by the target section before