CATANIA: First beam from superconducting cyclotron

Full text: The CS superconducting (K=800) cyclotron built at the Laboratorio Nazionale del Sud (LNS) of INFN, Catania, in a collaboration between the LNS and INFN Milan gave its first beam on 22 December when nickel-58 (16+) ions were extracted. The beam energy was 30 MeV/nucleon and currents of 3 and 5 nA were measured before and after the extraction deflectors. The CS, presently with an SMP15 Tandem injector, can accelerate lighter ions up to 100 MeV/nucleon and heavier nuclei to 20 MeV/nucleon. Research with heavy ions will now be extended to the intermediate energy domain at the LNS, one the four INFN national laboratories and a major nuclear physics facility in Italy