The ISOLDE facility at the CERN PS Booster

The CERN ISOLDE on-line mass separator facility was reconstructed at the 1 GeV PS Booster and is now being commissioned. Protons in very short high intensity pulses (average current 2 μA) are directed on either one of the targets of the two on-line mass separators. The 60 keV ions from them are fed into a common beam transport system to which most of the experiments will be connected. The facility can supply radioactive beams of about 60 elements from the whole nuclear mass range to a community of more than 250 physicists working in the fields of nuclear, atomic, surface and solid-state physics, astrophysics and nuclear medicine. The most interesting features of the facility will be discussed and a few experiments described to illustrate the extent of the experimental programme. An outlook into future developments such as resonant laser ion sources and plans for post-acceleration of radioactive ions will be given. (orig.)