The EBIS in the TRIUMF clean room. From left to right: Rituparna Kanungo; Christopher Charles; Paige Harford; Saint Mary’s Vice President Academic and Research, Malcolm Butler; Brad Schultz, and Mathieu Cavenaile.
A partnership between Saint Mary's University, TRIUMF, and the University of Manitoba for the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) project CANREB, has borne significant fruit when it comes to radioactive isotope research.
Saint Mary's University leads this national CFI project for rare isotope research at Canada's particle accelerator centre, TRIUMF in Vancouver, British Columbia. On December 6, 2020, the CANREB (CANadian Rare isotope facility with Electron Beam ion source) team of scientists and engineers achieved a major milestone accelerating for the first time a radioactive isotope beam through the CANREB facility and delivered to the IRIS experiment in the ISAC-II experimental hall. The IRIS facility is also a SMU-led CFI project that unveils the secrets of the rare isotopes with nuclear reactions.
"CANREB opens an exciting new era for exploring the rare isotopes in nature. It enables the capacity to accelerate, with high-purity, high-mass isotopes," says Rituparna Kanungo, Principal Investigator for the CANREB project, Professor of Physics at Saint Mary's University and a TRIUMF Affiliate Scientist. "CANREB unlocks new opportunities for research and the training of students and postdocs from across Canada and around the world. The project has been a strong team effort from its conception to its realization. I am thankful to everyone in the team for making CANREB a success story."
The first beam – copper-59, at a charge state of +19 – was manoeuvred through a multifaceted sequence of several complex state-of-the-art, custom built components that were all designed by the CANREB team.
The Radio Frequency Quadrupole at the CANREB beamline.
From left to right: Rituparna Kanungo, Paige Harford, Brad Schultz, Friendhelm Ames, and Mathieu Cavenaile.
A key element of the successful beam delivery and the final piece to be commissioned in the CANREB puzzle was the electron beam ion source (EBIS) – a special device for enhancing the electrical charge ("charge-breeding") of isotopes. It was developed in collaboration with researchers at the Max Planck Institute für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany.
“I am proud to be a part of this exciting project,” says Saint Mary’s University Ph.D. student Mathieu Cavenaile who is working at TRIUMF on studying charge breeding of rare isotopes with the EBIS. “It is a tremendous opportunity to be working at TRIUMF with the highly skilled team.”
"We were particularly happy to record the successful function of the EBIS in terms of charge-breeding a high-purity radioactive isotope beam," said Friedhelm Ames, CANREB project coordinator, TRIUMF Scientist and Adjunct Faculty of Saint Mary’s University. "This was the first real test of the full system using a radioactive beam similar to those that we expect to be soon delivering to ISAC science experiments: a charge-bred, intense beam with very low levels of impurities. CANREB's beam delivery system functioned as expected, which is a tremendous achievement for the many hard-working teams that have contributed to its deployment."
“The CANREB project recognizes that the universities are integral partners to TRIUMF,” says Malcolm Butler, Vice President Academic and Research, Saint Mary’s University. “It has showcased TRIUMF’s role as a national laboratory in supporting opportunities for researchers from universities with good ideas to lead and bring exciting discoveries out from the lab.”
The High Resolution Separator (HRS) and part of the CANREB team.
Photo Credit : Stuart Shepherd, TRIUMF
“This success is a testament to the people in the team and the broader TRIUMF community,” says Jonathan Bagger, Director of TRIUMF. “Completion of the CANREB facility represents an essential step towards building the TRIUMF of the future.”
“It is a fantastic to see the CANREB infrastructure come together, a great achievement of the whole team,” says Reiner Kruecken, Deputy Director of Research at TRIUMF. “We can now really start exploiting this innovative infrastructure for exciting science and I am happy to be a part of that myself.”
The inaugural beam of copper-59, originated in TRIUMF's ISAC target station and was the first radioactive beam to undergo charge breeding with CANREB and be post accelerated through to ISAC-II. At the IRIS experiment a snapshot of the beam was seen through the lens of energy deposited in a gas-filled detector. In nature, copper-59 is among the many radioactive isotopes whose reactions power astrophysical phenomena like X-ray bursts and could potentially contribute to the creation of some heavy elements. Using such beams at TRIUMF, researchers directly or indirectly such processes in the laboratory to gain insight on nature’s working.
This has been a remarkable achievement, especially during this globally challenging year with the pandemic, further showcasing the well-coordinated capacity of the CANREB team. As a tough year ended with a happy note of success, the team is looking forward to gearing up on further advancement of the project.
The CANREB project is thankful for research funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust, the Manitoba Research and Innovation Fund. It was also supported by TRIUMF's commercialization arm, TRIUMF Innovations and TRIUMF.
A screenshot of the CANREB virtual celebration on December 11. Credit: Stu Shepherd/Rituparna Kanungo