Matching of Beam Handling and Detection System for Optimum Resolution

The measuring process in experiments with particle beams is analyzed for nuclear reaction studies and beam foil spectroscopy. The beam handling system, the reaction, and the detection system are treated as one unit. This leads to a formalism in which the resolution for any quantity of physical interest can be written down explicitly and consequently optimized. In linear approximation most of the contributions to line broadening, like the energy spread of the beam or the acceptance angle of the spectrometer, can be eliminated completely and simultaneously without loss of count rate. Furthermore, the influence of the remaining one or two causes for poor resolution can be minimized. The necessary hardware is little or no more than what is usual at many accelerator installations.