Design and Beam Dynamics Studies of a Novel Compact Recoil Separator Ring for Nuclear Research with Radioactive Beams

The recent development of radioactive beam facilities has significantly expanded the capabilities for investigating the structure of the atomic nucleus and the nuclear interaction. For instance, the HIE-ISOLDE facility at CERN delivers presently the largest range of low-energy radioactive beam available worldwide. This energy range is ideal for the study of nuclear structure, low-energy dynamics and astrophysics by using nucleon transfer, Coulomb excitation and deep inelastic reactions. All these studies require an efficient and high-resolution recoil separator for the clear identification of medium and large mass reaction fragments. To meet these needs, we propose a versatile recoil separator for radioisotopes based on a compact storage ring, the Isolde Superconducting Recoil Separator (ISRS) formed of superconducting combined-function nested magnets with both, bending and focusing/defocusing functions. The ISRS is designed to operate in high momentum acceptance and isochronous modes. In this paper, we present the optics design and detailed beam dynamics studies for the performance characterisation.