Recent ion source developments for production of radioactive beams (invited)

Abstract

Presently, worldwide radioactive ion beam facilities based on the separator online are the main instruments for nuclear structure study and for solving many important questions about astrophysics. Investigations of short-lived neutron-rich and neutron-deficient nuclei, that are far from stability give a unique possibility for testing many aspects of modern nuclear structure theory. Therefore, the development of highly efficient, selective, and fast ion source-target systems (ISTS) for modern and next generation ISOL facilities is the crucial point for future progress of nuclear science and experimental astrophysics. The last decade demonstrates a burst of new developments in the field of ion source-target systems for ISOL installation use. The main task of this review is to show the latest results obtained with different types of ion sources, specially designed for short-lived isotope production, and to designate some directions of the ISTS development that can be noticed presently and very likely will be used in the near future.