The development of the 17F beam at the Holifield radioactive ion beam facility Original Research Article

This report details some of the key technological developments employed at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility (HRIBF) to produce beams of 17F using the 16O(d, n)17F reaction. The oxide fiber target material used at the HRIBF is described and a comparison is made between the 17F yield achieved using light (Al) and heavy (Hf) metal oxide fibers. The development of the Kinetic Ejection Negative Ion Source (KENIS) employed in this work is also discussed along with the operational principles of the source. Finally, a detailed description of the HfO2 target configuration used to produce 107–10817F ions/s for over 850 hours of operation is provided. To date, seven nuclear physics experiments using accelerated beams of 17F and 18F produced using this apparatus have been performed over an energy range of 10–170 MeV.