FRIB Beam Commissioning

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a major nuclear physics facility for research with fast, stopped and reaccelerated rare isotope beams, is approaching the commencement of user operation in 2022 as planned. The acceleration of Xe, Kr, and Ar ion beams above 210 MeV/u using all 46 cryomodules with 324 superconducting cavities was demonstrated. Several key technologies were successfully developed and implemented for the world's highest energy continuous wave heavy ion beams, such as full-scale cryogenics and superconducting radiofrequency resonator system, stripping heavy ions with a thin liquid lithium film, and simultaneous acceleration of multiple-charge-state-heavy ion beams. In December 2021, we demonstrated the production and identification of Selenium-84 isotopes and, in January 2022, commissioned the fragment separator by delivering 210 MeV/u argon beam to the focal plane.

Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science under Cooperative Agreement DE-SC0000661, the State of Michigan and Michigan State University.