
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 80 Ph.D. theses and over 500 publications in refereed
international journals including 15 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
Guest house
requisition
User feedback doc pdf
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Reaction studies
near barrier
·
Applications
·
Radiation damage studies (reactor
materials, space application chips)
·
Radiation biology (proteins, DNA)
·
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
Ø First
beam accelerated through LINAC on 22nd
Sept.2002
Ø 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
Ø 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)
Ø 24th Jan 2004 - 58Ni (23+)
accelerated to 210.9 MeV through LINAC
Ø Full
LINAC tested successfully in July 07 (Energy gain)
Average energy
gain ~ 80% of design value
Ø User
experiments continuing since Nov. 07
Ø Accelerator control and instrumentation
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s
visit to LINAC (June 2010)
INGA @PLF, Mumbai (2010-..)

Upcoming Conferences/Workshops
· DAE-BRNS
symposium in Nuclear Physics (3-7 Dec.2012)
· PARIS India Collaboration Meeting
(10-12 Jan.2013)
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· MARIE (Light RIB separator)
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DNAP
BARC
DAE
ISPA
useful links
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