Study, design and test of the Target - Ion Source system for the INFN SPES facility

Since the beginning of the twentieth century nuclear physics explores the behaviour and the stability of nuclei, each time facing new scientific and technological challenges. The complex technologies specifically developed to support research in the field of nuclear physics have often led to important applications in medicine, industry, applied physics, influencing sometimes in a deep way the society: the birth of the “web” at CERN is an emblematic example. Over the years Europe has become a leader in the field of nuclear physics research: CERN is the world's largest particle physics laboratory, situated in the Northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border, and Italy, with INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), is one of its main members. In Italy, one of the most important projects supported by INFN is the so-called SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) project that is intended to develop a facility for the production of radioactive ion beams at Legnaro National Laboratories (Padua, Italy). In particular the SPES facility will produce neutron rich nuclei with mass in the range 80-160, to use for forefront research in nuclear physics and for many applications in different fields of science. The core of the project is constituted by the target – ion source system and in this work its study, design and test are presented. Chapter 1 gives a general overview of the SPES project and its scientific context whereas chapter 2 presents some details of the SPES production area that is composed of the target – ion source system and all the experimental apparatus needed for its functioning. Chapters 3 and 4 describe in detail the study, the design and the experimental tests performed for the SPES target and for the SPES ion sources, respectively. Once described separately the target and the ion source, they are studied together in chapter 5, observing with particular attention their reciprocal effects. In the final part of the thesis chapter 6 reports the description of the on-line test of the uranium carbide SPES target prototype carried on at the HRIBF facility (ORNL, USA).