Chairman: Karsten Riisager

Scientific Secretary: Mats Lindroos

Present: Jonathan Billowes (invited), Yorick Blumenfeld, Richard Catherall, Valentin Fedosseev, Mark Huyse, Jacques Lettry, Mats Lindroos, Roberto Losito (invited), Jerry Nolen (invited, present from point 3), Karsten Riisager, Marie-Genevieve Saint-Laurent (GANIL rep.), P. Schmor (invited), Thierry Stora

Excused: Reiner Krücken, Thomas Otto, Peter Butler, Piet van Duppen, Roland Garoby,  Marek Lewitowics

1. Minutes of last meeting

• The minutes from the last meeting were approved.

2. RILIS and LARIS activities (VF)

• The upgrade group had a very interesting visit to the LARIS laboratory. Many thanks to Bruce Marsh, Marica Sjoedin and Valentine Fedosseev for the visit.
• Valentin reported (see file below) to the upgrade group on the RILIS renovation programme and the construction of the off-line LARIS lab within the framework of HIE-ISOLDE (financed by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg foundation in Sweden). The new solid state laser for the on-line RILIS system will secure the operation as the old CVL laser are getting difficult to maintained. It will also improve the reliability of the system as the solid state laser should be easier to run and maintain. However, the CVL lasers at RILIS will be kept as backup until reliable SSL performance is reached even though we will plan to only use the new system in 2008. After the installation of solid state lasers for dye laser pumping the next steps at the RILIS will be: a market survey for high pulse rate dye lasers, the purchasing of new dye lasers, provision of conditions for remote control of key RILIS parameters, integration of RILIS operation in the ISOLDE separator courses, a switch in RILIS running from “shift” to “on-call” operation, the installation of Ti:Saphire lasers in addition to dye lasers and, finally, the RILIS will be made available for parallel running at GPS and HRS. The availability of the RILIS system will for next year remain the same as in 2007 until the RILIS team has gained sufficient experience with the system to increase the number of shifts on-line. The LARIS laboratory is now operational. The laboratory is equipped with two OPO lasers, an ablation laser for the atomic source, a dye laser for the first step ionization and a TOF spectrometer. The laboratory has come in to existence as the result of the collaboration between The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the ISOLDE-RILIS. A lot of the equipment has been made available by the Stockholm group(s). The laboratory will permit measurements aiming to develop new ionization schemes, the search for auto-ionizing states, the improvement of the efficiency of existing schemes, relative efficiency measurements and test of new low-work function ionizing cavity materials. In principle, such measurements can be done for both Ti-Saphire RILIS systems and Dye laser RILIS systems. 
• Jacques Lettry pointed out that the reliability of the RILIS system in 2007 has been high and that it only can continue to be kept high if the work load on the RILIS team stays reasonable. He continued to ask Valentine if the operation staff can be reduced with the new solid state laser coming into operation. Valentin answered that the solid state lasers should be easier to operate but that at least initially he foresees no reduction in operational effort. Eventually, as more automatization and surveillance is put in place the users will be able to operate the system with the specialists available in "piquet/on-call" operation.
• Mark Huyse brought up the issue of why we ideally need identical systems on-line and off-line. Valentin clarified and explained that the LARIS lab only can provide relative efficiency measurements (comparing know RILIS schemes implemented at LARIS with newly developed LARIS schemes). The next step to improve the reliability of the LARIS measurements is provide the RILIS with an ISOLDE type front-end and target unit.
• Karsten Riisager initiated a discussion on the priorities for the LARIS lab. Jonathan Billowes pointed out that a list of presently used RILIS ionization schemes with efficiencies for both the RILIS and parasitic ionization in the hot cavity would enable the group to identify the priorities for the LARIS lab. Valentin promised to produces such a list for the next upgrade group meeting.

3. Priorities for target and ion source development (AH, TS)

• Alex Herlert reported (see file below) on last years run and R&D work at ISOLDE. Thierry Stora reported (see file below) on target R&D at ISOLDE and asked for priorities for next year. It was noted by Alex that there is a huge request for off-line time for the start-up next year. Alex will make a schedule and submit it to the different stakeholders for discussion. It was agreed that the priorities for target and ion source R&D for 2008 should be: i) extensive cleaning of a CaO target with cold plasma to suppress ³⁵Cl in the ³⁵Ar beam for WITCH,  ii) the minimono source, iii) the development of low work function cavities for RILIS and iv) and the development of a ⁷²Kr beam. A number of new target materials tests are also planned but they take less resources than prototypes.
• The target and ion source section will lose several PhD students and post docs last year and is in urgent need of re-enforcement. The Physics group will make every possible effort to become more involved with the target and ion source characterization before each run.

4. News from AB concerning new projects and upgrade work (ML)

• Substantial progress has been made on the HIE-ISOLDE preparations at CERN in the last half year:< >Matteo Pasini has started in the AB-RF group on external money for 4 years to work for HIE-ISOLDE (Belgium grant for HIE-ISOLDE).
  

  There has been meetings with the TS dpt head and the AT dpt head to present the project

  Sputtered cavities has been proposed as the baseline for HIE-ISODLE as this technique represents an important synergy with the LHC needs (spare cavities, upgrade) and as it is an excellent R&D opportunity for which we can look for money. Thin film depositing techniques has evolved enormously since the LEP-II project and there could be a break through “around the corner”. However, no break through is needed for HIE-ISOLDE; only good performing sputtered QW cavities. This will require “reasonable” R&D efforts on surface preparation and sputtering at CERN and LNL

  There has been a technical meeting with the TS-MME group (which has the infrastructure and people to construct sputtered cavities) to discuss their participation

   Together with the UK Cockcroft Institute staff (Peter McIntosh, Roger Jones, Becky Seviour) and the MME group (3 incl. group leader) a visit has been organized to Enzo Palmieri at Legnaro (INFN-LNL) to discuss a collaboration on the HIE-ISOLDE linac cavities

  A WP has been prepared on “thin film depositing techniques for SC cavity applications”. It will form part of the superconducting cavity JRA in the EUCARD I3 proposal.

• A full work plan is being prepared (WP, WU, budget, staff, milestones, deliverables) for a 2 years R&D project for the HIE-ISODLE linac in collaboration with the MME group, Vittorio Parma in AT, LNL and the Cockcroft Institute for the beginning of December.
• There is a grant from Belgium at CERN which consists of 1 four years engineer post and 1 MCHF in material budget for the R&D part of the HIE-ISOLDE linac (2 year project)
• The UK NP community a Statement of Interest in the UK for a proposal for the HIE-ISOLDE linac (3.5 MPounds).
• The Belgium NP community plans for a grant proposal for HIE-ISODLE
• A number of probes are out for grant proposals in Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Finland for HIE-ISOLDE.  

• The first priority must now be to secure sufficient external money for HIE-ISOLDE to go ahead with the linac upgrade. This requires some 7 MCHF in total in external money. We have at present 3.8 MCHF plus 4 years of one engineer post. The collaboration can maybe contribute with 1 MCHF over 4 years. If we can secure one more grant of some 2 MCHF we would like to go to the DG and ask for the matching 7 MCHF  so that the linac upgrade can go ahead
• The second priority is to look for R&D opportunities which can help us secure more external money for the rest of the project. The big challenge will be the new target area for 2012 when linac4 starts operating. 
• ENSAR: The next EURONS I3 has been named ENSAR. The AB dpt is leading one JRA for the development of submicron structured UC ISOL target material (Thierry Stora) and is participating in one JRA which includes work on the RILIS. The PH department is participating in the charge breeding JRA, is in charge of the ISOLDE access program and leads the CERN effort for ENSAR.  
• RFQ cooler: The cooler has been commissioned on-line and is already in use for an experiment. A few slides from the first run is available here.

5. Next meeting

• The next meeting of the upgrade group will take place Tuesday 20^th of May 2006 at 14:00. The RILIS team is asked to make a list on efficiencies (see above) for the next meeting. The meeting will focus on the injector upgrades at CERN.

Minutes by Mats Lindroos,