Upgrade of the facility EXOTIC for the in-flight production of light Radioactive Ion Beams

Highlights: • Production of in-flight Radioactive Ion Beams via two-body reactions. • Development of a cryogenic gas target. • Event-by-event tracking via Parallel Plate Avalanche Counters (PPACs). -- Abstract: The facility EXOTIC for the in-flight production of light weakly-bound Radioactive Ion Beams (RIBs) has been operating at INFN-LNL since 2004. RIBs are produced via two-body reactions induced by high intensity heavy-ion beams impinging on light gas targets and selected by means of a 30°-dipole bending magnet and a 1-m long Wien filter. The facility has been recently upgraded (i) by developing a cryogenic gas target, (ii) by replacing the power supplies of the middle lenses of the two quadrupole triplets, (iii) by installing two y-steerers and (iv) by placing two Parallel Plate Avalanche Counters upstream the secondary target to provide an event-by-event reconstruction of the position hit on the target. So far, RIBs of 7Be, 8B and 17F in the energy range 3–5 MeV/u have been produced with intensities about 3 × 105, 1.6 × 103 and 105 pps, respectively. Possible light RIBs (up to Z = 10) deliverable by the facility EXOTIC are also reviewed