Technical Improvements for High Resolution Ion Beam Experiments

Ion beams with high energy resolution are valuable tools for the investigations of a wide range of phenomena in nuclear, atomic, and condensed matter physics. For the study of such effects involving narrow nuclear resonances, the quality of the target is as important as the quality of the ion beam. Thus, a UHV system has been built including characteristics such as in situ target fabrication and variable target temperature. A number of improvements were also made to the newly installed 400 kV Munster accelerator to achieve better energy resolution ( Delta E/E approx = 1 x 10 exp --5 ) for intense ion beams ( approx 100 mu A). Thick-target yield curves of narrow resonances in (p, gamma ) reactions on exp 23 Na and exp 27 Al show the Lewis effect clearly. Graphs. 5 ref.--AA