Recent developments in production of radioactive ion beams with the selective laser ion source at the on-line isotope separator ISOLDE

The production of radioactive ionization laser ion source (RILIS) of ISOLDE on-line isotope separation facility was investigated. The RILIS setup included three dye lasers and ionization schemes which employ three resonant transitions were also used. The RILIS efficiency could be reduced by nuclear effects such as hyperfine splitting and isotope shifts. The off-line resonance ionization spectroscopy determined optimal three-step ionization schemes for yttrium, scandium and antimony and antimony. The results show that best ionization schemes of Y provided gain factor of 15 with respect to surface ionization. (Edited abstract) 8 Refs.