
The
Pelletron Accelerator, set up as a
collaborative project between the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, has
been serving as a major facility for heavy ion accelerator based research in
India since its commissioning in December 1988. Several advanced experimental
facilities have also been established at this centre to pursue research in
nuclear, atomic, condensed matter physics and interdisciplinary areas. A number
of application based research programmes have also been taken up using this
accelerator. The research work in nuclear physics, which forms the main thrust
of activities at this facility, covers areas of nuclear structure studies at
high angular momentum and excitation energies and the heavy ion reaction
dynamics. The accelerator has now completed 20 years of successful operation,
catering to a large community of scientists in the country. While the majority of the researchers at this facility are from
BARC and TIFR, the experimental community encompasses scientists and students
from other research centres and universities within and outside the country.
These past years have been scientifically stimulating and very productive. More than 75 Ph.D. theses and over 400 publications
in refereed international journals including 12 publications in Physical Review Letters have resulted from the research activities in this
laboratory.
The
accelerator has performed exceedingly well in the last two decades delivering
beams ranging from proton to Iodine.
Various modifications to improve the performance of the Pelletron
accelerator have been implemented. The
accelerator operation fully complies with the guidelines and recommendations of
the Particle Accelerator Safety Committee (PASC), the Operating Plant Safety
Committee (OPSRC) and the BARC Safety council.
A
superconducting linear accelerator has been indigenously developed to boost the
energy of heavy ion beams delivered by the Pelletron accelerator. The superconducting LINAC booster phase
I consisting of three accelerating modules was commissioned in 2002. In July 2007, Silicon ions were
accelerated using all seven modules and were transported to the experimental
stations in the first user hall.
The performance was excellent with an average energy gain per cavity of
0.4 MV/q corresponding to 80% of the design value. This national facility was dedicated to
users on 28th November 2007 and several experiments have been carried out with
LINAC. Development of the
superconducting LINAC is a major milestone in the accelerator technology in our
country. Most of the critical components
of the LINAC booster, the first superconducting heavy ion accelerator in


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LINAC −overview internal reports report1 (2002) report2 (2003) new beam hall
Data acquisition LAMPS
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Available Beams &
Energies with LINAC
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Miscelleneous information
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Downloads
Beam
time requisition
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Reaction studies near barrier
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Applications
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Radiation damage studies (reactor
materials, space application chips)
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Radiation biology (proteins, DNA)
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Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (36Cl/Cl)
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Track etched membrane (ultra-fine filters)
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2000 onwards
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Accelerator & Instrumentation
LINAC goes online…..
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First
beam accelerated through LINAC on 22nd
Sept.2002
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Feb.2003
-Beam diagnostic tests – phase space evolution across the mid-bend magnet
tested
Set up for
LINAC beam tests (particle detector +MSP)
Energy gain, Timing, Longitudinal
Phase space evolution
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April
2003 - LINAC beam cycle
started
on 16th April 2003, with 49 MeV Energy gain for Si13+
PLUM (Fission Hindrance
in 28Si+175Lu) Phys. Rev. C 73, 064609 (2006)
GRAPE (GDR in 28Si+124Sn) Nucl.
Phys. A 770, 126
(2006)
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24th Jan 2004 - 58Ni (23+)
accelerated to 210.9 MeV through LINAC
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Full
LINAC tested successfully in July 07 (Energy gain)
Average energy gain ~ 80% of design value
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User
experiments in Nov. 07, July-Aug.08
Upcoming
events
§ Two decades of Pelletron 11th Dec. 2008
§
Frontiers in Gamma
spectroscopy FIG09, 2nd-4th March
2009
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· MARIE (Light RIB separator)
Picture Gallery
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TIFR
DNAP
BARC
DAE
useful links