(From Left) Robert Laxdal, Isao Tanihata, Director Alan Shotter, and Mike Trinczek watch the first events recorded by the MAYA apparatus (visible in background).
A major milestone at TRIUMF was passed Friday January 5, 2007 at 7:09pm when the first radioactive beam, 11Li was delivered from the ISAC-II accelerator by TRIUMF scientist Robert Laxdal, who has led the ISAC-II development from its inception. The beam was transported to the MAYA experiment and within two hours data taking commenced. The MAYA equipment was brought to TRIUMF from the GANIL laboratory in France by the experiment co-spokesperson Herve Savajols to study the outer skin structure of the exotic nucleus 11Li.
Co-spokesperson Isao Tanihata, who was on hand for the first beam, remarked that "Nuclear Physicists worldwide have been waiting for 20 years for a high-quality 11Li ion beam to observe the special properties of this halo nucleus. These high quality beams at TRIUMF will open a new era for nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics research. The MAYA collaboration group — TRIUMF, GANIL(France), and ANL(USA) — are honored and happy to be the first group to use this new world class facility."
The new ISAC-II accelerator adds 20 million volts of accelerating voltage to the existing ISAC accelerator chain. For the MAYA experiment, only 11 of the 20 available superconducting niobium radio-frequency cavities were needed to accelerate the beam to the required experimental energy of 39.6 MeV.
The successful construction of ISAC-II and the quality of its accelerated beams is a great tribute to many people at TRIUMF. This is an exciting time for TRIUMF and for the Radioactive Ion Beam community in general.
