Technical improvements for high resolution ion beam experiments

Abstract

Ion beams with high energy resolution are valuable tools for the investigation 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 Münster accelerator to achieve better energy resolution $\text{(ΔE/E ⋍ 1 × 10}{}^{\mathrm{-5}}\text{)}$ for intense ion beams (⋍ 100 μA). Thick-target yield curves of narrow resonances in (p, γ) reactions on ²³Na and ²⁷Al show the Lewis effect clearly.