Recent developments and on-line tests of uranium carbide targets for production of nuclides far from

The capacity of uranium carbide target materials of different structure and density for production of neutron-rich and heavy neutron-deficient isotopes have been investigated at the IRIS facility (PNPI) in the collaboration with Legnaro – GANIL – Orsay laboratories. The yields and release times of the species produced in the targets by the reactions induced by a 1 GeV proton beam of the PNPI synchrocyclotron have been measured. For the purpose to elaborate the most efficient and fast uranium carbide target prototype three kinds of the target materials were studied: a) a high density UC target material having ceramic-like structure with the density of 11 g/cm3 and the grain dimensions of about 200 microns; b) a high density UC target material with the density of 12 g/cm3 and the grain dimensions of about 20 microns prepared by the method of the powder metallurgy; c) a low density UCx target material with the density 3g/cm3 and the grain dimensions of about 20 microns prepared by the ISOLDE method. The comparison of the yields and release efficiencies of Rb, Cs, Fr, In and other species produced from the investigated target materials obtained during on-line tests have been shown. The results of the on-line tests of a high density target material maintenance in the rhenium container have been presented as well. In the fig. 1 the Cs isotope yields produced from a high density UC used at the IRIS facility and UCx prepared by ISOLDE method at IRIS in the collaboration with PARRNe group from Orsay are presented. Some yield points from the ISOLDE original target have been shown as well.