A two-cyclotron concept for the production of radioactive ion beams

The idea of using the two cyclotrons operating in adjacent vaults at the Universite Catholique de Louvain at Louvain-la-Neuve to measure directly the cross-section at subCoulomb energies of a nuclear reaction involving a nucleus with a half life shorter than one hour has been proposed. The radiative proton capture on ¹³N (with a half life of about 10 minutes) was selected as an especially interesting representative of that class of reactions. The concept prescribes using CYCLONE 30, the 500-μA, 30-MeV H^- prototype cyclotron, to produce large amounts of ¹³N and then accelerating the ¹³N ions with the variable energy, multiparticle cyclotron CYCLONE. Special attention is given to sixth harmonic mode acceleration in CYCLONE