Calibration of the ISOLDE acceleration voltage using a high-precision voltage divider and applying collinear fast beam laser spectroscopy

A high-voltage divider with accuracy at the ppm level and collinear laser spectroscopy were used to calibrate the high-voltage installation at the radioactive ion beam facility ISOLDE at CERN. The accurate knowledge of this voltage is particularly important for collinear laser spectroscopy measurements. Beam velocity measurements using frequency-comb based collinear laser spectroscopy agree with the new calibration. Applying this, one obtains consistent results for isotope shifts of stable magnesium isotopes measured using collinear spectroscopy and laser spectroscopy on laser-cooled ions in a trap. The long-term stability and the transient behavior during recovery from a voltage dropout were investigated for the different power supplies currently applied at ISOLDE.