Hands-on Activities
Photo © 2010 The Regents of the University of California, through the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
FIONA
The pre-existing Berkeley Gas-filled Separator is used to separate superheavy elements created in complete-fusion, neutron-evaporation reactions from the beam and unwanted reaction products. However, it has a high g-ray and neutron background at the detector station and a low mass resolution. Recently, BGS was coupled to FIONA, which is designed to take the recoiling heavy elements from the BGS, slow and bunch them in a gas catcher and RF quadruple traps, reaccelerate them and send them to a low g-ray and neutron background region. There, the ions are separated by their A/Q ratios in a trochoidal separator.
This hands-on activity will tune ions through FIONA and look at the impact of various settings on the efficiency and resolution of the separator.
Gamma-Ray Tracking:
Gamma-ray tracking arrays, such as GRETINA/GRETA and AGATA in Europe represent the next generation of gamma-ray spectroscopy. These detector systems make use of highly-segmented HPGe crystals and advanced pulse shape analysis to locate individual gamma-ray interactions to within several mm3, and then track gamma-rays through the most likely scatter sequences to decide if they are good events or Compton background.
This Hands-on activity will explore gamma-ray tracking including (a) looking at real detector signals and data to explore signal decomposition, and (b) investigating details of detector crystal geometry with scanning data
High Resolution Gamma-Ray Imaging
An investigation of how parameters such as position resolution, detector geometry, and event selection impact the performance of high-resolution Compton imaging systems.
The hands on activity will begin with a discussion of core concepts relevant to Compton imaging with segmented semiconductor detectors. The hands on exercises will then include the use of simulated and experimental data to investigate how several key parameters influence the angular resolution and efficiency of a semiconductor Compton imager.
VENUS
VENUS (Versatile ECR ion source for NUclear Science) is a next generation superconducting ECR ion source, designed to produce high current, high charge state ions for the 88-Inch Cyclotron at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. VENUS also serves as the prototype ion source for the FRIB front end.
This Hands-on activity will involve tuning a beam out of the VENUS ion source and investigating the impact of plasma density on the intensity and the distribution of charge states.
