Developments in Ion-Beam Analysis and Medical Isotope Production with up to 10 MV Electrostatic Accelerators

This work was broadly guided by the availability of ion beams in the ISNAP facility at the University of Notre Dame and several identified research needs. The St. Andre facility, with both proton and alpha-particle beams, was primarily used for proton beam PIGE/PIXE. The existing method of producing external standards involved significant uncertainty, as standards had to be remade after a single use due to damage under beam. Thus, we developed a robust and reproducible standard required for comparing data sets collected across days and facilities in other parts of the world. The Jaffe research group approached us with the need to measure relative and ultimately absolute concentrations of hydrogen in their samples. The method of choice, ERDA with alpha-particles, had not been previously performed in the St. Andre facility. In collaboration with the Jaffe group, we established targetry preparation, uncertainty estimations that guided design, laser alignment of target facing angle, detector positioning and settings, and irradiation parameters. Connections with research groups at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Texas A&M, Argonne National Laboratory, and Michigan State University led to collaborations and experience with light-ion based isotope production techniques. Several cross section and yield measurements were performed at the University of Notre Dame with these collaborators. Unlike most isotope production facilities, ISNAP houses a 10 MV FN tandem Pelletron accelerator coupled to two ion sources, covering most of the periodic table. The most prolific heavy ion beams with SNICS and cyclotron facilities are oxygen, fluorine, and carbon. A literature review revealed few published articles on the application of heavy ion beams to isotope production. To supplement existing light-ion techniques, a systematic review of heavy ion reactions involving 16O, 19F, and 12C beams was performed. Based on yield expectations, favorable reactions were tested and a MATLAB-based library for gamma-ray spectroscopy analysis was created.