Advances in the SPES Project and its ion source systems

Abstract

SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) is an INFN project to develop a Radioactive Ion Beam facility as an intermediate step toward the future generation European ISOL facility EURISOL. The aim of the SPES project is to provide high intensity and high-quality beams of neutron-rich nuclei to perform forefront research in nuclear structure, reaction dynamics and in interdisciplinary fields like medical, biological and material sciences. It is based on the ISOL method with an UCx Direct Target able to produce 1013 fission/s by proton induced fission in the UCx target. The development of new target ion source systems for the SPES facility is currently in progress at Legnaro National Laboratories. In this context the study of ion sources and their performance in terms of ionization efficiency and transversal emittance is a crucial point in order to maximize the available yields, particularly for short-lived isotopes. In this work preliminary offline measurements for the SPES surface, plasma and laser ion sources are presented.