SCORPION: a system for coincidences between recoil and projectile ions at NSC, New Delhi

An on-line facility to measure coincidences between the recoil ions and the scattered projectiles (SCORPION) has been designed, fabricated and commissioned at Nuclear Science Centre (NSC), New Delhi. The facility consists of a four jaw slit assembly, a time of flight (TOF) spectrometer, a parallel plate electrostatic charge analyser and a one dimensional position sensitive parallel plate avalanche counter (PPAC). Details of the design and working principles of various components and the test results obtained for the Siq+ -Ar collision system are presented to highlight the performance of the system. A multiple loss of up to four electrons has been observed for 60 MeV Si4+ ions colliding with argon atoms in a single collision condition. Spectra of recoil ions detected in coincidence with a particular charge state of the scattered projectile show a bell shaped distribution as a function of the recoil charge state (r) for the electron loss events. However, the yield of recoil ions drops as r increases for the direct ionization channel. Also for electron loss, the peak of the recoil ion distribution is seen to shift to a higher recoil charge state as the number of lost electrons from the projectile increases. (author)