Upgrade of the ERDA setup at the HZDR 6 MV tandem accelerator

During 2019 the elastic recoil detection (ERD) beamline attached to the 6 MV tandem accelerator at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has been modernized completely. Since many of the vacuum and electrical components of the previous setup had been showing signs of aging or failing, the decision was made to replace these and rebuild the setup. Additionally, during 2018 the construction of a new time-of-flight spectrometer for ERD was also completed, and it was seen that the ERD setup as a whole would benefit from a combination of a new chamber, mechanical supports and a control system.

The new setup incorporates the previously used Z-separating Bragg ionization chamber (BIC), which is typically used with 43 MeV 35Cl beam. It is connected to a port on the chamber giving 30 degree scattering angle. The time-of-flight branch is attached to the other side of the chamber at a 40 degree scattering angle. Various beams up to an energy of 20 MeV for 35Cl or 30 MeV for 63Cu can be used, or even higher if hydrogen depth profiling is not necessary. The detector branches can be operated independently of each other, minimizing downtime due to breakdowns of detectors or maintenance. This is exceedingly important since the ion beam center (IBC) is a user facility and the beam time for the 6 MV accelerator is allocated based on proposals and scheduled long in advance to the actual measurement.

This presentation will give an overview of the new ERD setup, including specifics on the design of the new chamber, control and vacuum systems, detectors and data acquisition as well as some experimental data, performance figures and experiences gained during the construction of the setup.