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The employment of high-precision nuclear and atomic physics techniques at low-energy beam ISOL-type facilities has turned out to be a very successful and complementary approach in the investigation of the structure of nuclei far from stability.
If the applicability of these experimental techniques can be extended to beams from fragmentation reactions then isotopes of elements can be explored that are not accessible at ISOL facilities. Advantages also exist in the often higher production yields available for the most exotic and shortest-lived nuclides.
However, there is a large gap between the beam properties as provided by fragment separators and those required by many precision atomic and nuclear physics studies. Precision studies often need low-energy beams of high quality. Providing such beams and using them for experiments is the task of LEBIT, the Low Energy Beam and Ion Trap facility at the NSCL.
In LEBIT, high-energy fragmentation products are stopped in a gas cell. Radio-frequency ion-guide techniques are used to produce a low-energy bunched ion beam with excellent beam properties. This beam is then either sent to a Penning trap system for precision mass measurements or made available for other experiments.
LEBIT
is in a stage of advanced construction and expected to become operational in 2004. For further information
on the device and its status, please contact:
Georg Bollen, bollen@nscl.msu.edu or Dave Morrissey, morrissey@nscl.msu.edu.