Minutes from REX meeting 2006-08-30

 

Present: Mats Lindroos (chair), Didier Voulot, Christian Dutriat and Matteo Pasini

 

 

 

Li run

 

* REX is set up for 8Li run. Efficiencies are OK for the low energy part (~20% trap, 13% EBIS) and for the linac (75-85%). Some radioactive beam was delivered overnight but the yield is very low (100 times lower than expected).

 

* Stripper foils are used to get rid of the 16O contamination. An extra very thin (4ug/cm^2) C foil has been installed between the RFQ and buncher. It is expected that this extra foil will increase the Li/O ratio: charge distribution and energy loss should favour Li over O.

First tests on Monday night showed an increase of 8x in Li/O ratio with this extra foil (for a 6x decrease in absolute Li intensity). Unfortunately beam intensity is too low to operate with this double stripping arrangement. So only the standard 25ug/cm^2 stripper foil at the linac output can be used for data taking.

 

* The linac RF is performing exceptionally well: 3.15MeV/u at 50Hz/900us with very few interruptions. Also the instabilities expected at these low levels (A/q=2.666 -> RF power below 30kW in the IHS) have not been seen.

 

 

Installation

 

* Mechanical design is now finished and construction of the different supports and beampipes is now starting.

 

* An updated budget for Minimove phase1 is attached to the minutes. The final budget will be over the planned 156kCHF and more likely around 200kCHF. This is mainly due to: extra pumping group, cost of mechanical design/construction and cable trays. Most of the cabling is already included in the power supplies cost.

 

* An updated schedule will be prepared. So far, installation of alignment points and painting of floor lines are planned for next week and following (week 36-37), installation of cable trays, power, cooling water and compressed air pipes are planned for the second half of September (week 38-39). The refurbished magnets and their support frame will be ready before end of October (week 43).

 

* New diagnostic boxes of the REX type will be produced by Leuven. They should be ready by February. Christian will make sure that someone from the BI group can follow-up and collect all necessary documentation.

 

 

General

 

* REX weekly meetings will be held from now on together with Isolde technical meetings on Tuesdays at 11:00.

 

 

 

 

Minutes taken by Didier Voulot