On-line separation of short-lived beryllium isotopes

With the development of a new laser ionization scheme, it became possible to ionize beryllium efficiently in the hot cavity of the ISOLDE laser ion source. The high target and ion source temperatures enable the release of short-lived beryllium isotopes. Thus all particle-stable beryllium isotopes could be extracted from a standard uranium carbide/graphite target. For the first time the short-lived isotopes /sup 12/Be and /sup 14/Be could be identified at an ISOL facility, /sup 14/Be being among the most short-lived isotopes separated so far at ISOLDE. The release time from the UC/graphite target was studied with several beryllium isotopes. Profiting from the element selectivity of laser ionization, the strong and isotopically pure beam of /sup 12/Be allowed to determine the half- life to T/sub 1/2 /=21.34(23) ms and the probability of beta-delayed neutron emission to P/sub n/=0.48/sub -0.10//sup +0.12/(23 refs).