Acceleration of Charge Bred Radioactive Ions at Triumf

Most ion sources at ISOL (isotope separation on-line) facilities can produce only singly charged ions but efficient post acceleration requires high charge states. For light ions this can be achieved by stripping after a first moderate acceleration but with heavy ions this is no longer possible and charge state breeding is necessary. The breeder should be able to work at a high efficiency for the required charge state and especially for short-lived radioactive isotopes the process should be fast. For the ISAC facility at TRIUMF an ECRIS charge breeder (14.5 GHz PHOENIX from Pantechnik) has been chosen as it is well adapted to the continuous mode operation of the accelerator. After off-line optimization on a test bench the source has been moved on-line to the ISAC facility. Mass separated beams of radioactive ions from the on-line ion sources can be directed into the source. During a first test in fall 2008 a beam of Rb was successfully created from Rb and accelerated by the ISAC post accelerator. The paper includes a summary of the results from the test bench and from the on-line commissioning.