Intense radioactive ion beams produced with the ISOL method

For fifty years the isotope separation on-line (ISOL) technique has been used for the production of radioactive ion beams (RIBs). Thick target ISOL facilities can provide very intense RIBs for a wide range of applications. The important design parameters for an ISOL facility are efficiency, rapidity and selectivity of all steps of the separation process. To achieve the anticipated beam intensities with the next generation RIB facilities, the production rate in the ISOL target has to be increased by orders of magnitude. This is only possible by adapting the projectile beam for optimum production cross-sections and simultaneously minimizing the target heating due to the electronic stopping power of charged particle projectiles. ISOL beams of 75 different elements have been produced up to now and further beam development is under way to produce a still greater variety of isotopes and to improve existing beams in intensity and purity.