AVF Cyclotron

Ring Cyclotron

The RCNP accelerator facility is equipped with a cyclotron cascade consisting of two variable-energy multi-particle cyclotrons;

　- a K140 Azimuthally-Varying-Field(AVF) cyclotron constructed in 1973,

　- a K400 ring cyclotron constructed in 1991.

The maximum acceleration energy of the ring cyclotron is 420 MeV for protons and 100 MeV/nucleon for heavy ions. A variety of ion beams are utilized for the research in nuclear physics, radio chemistry and interdisciplinary research field. The AVF cyclotron is mainly used as an injector of the ring cyclotron, and regularly operated for production of radio-isotopes in a stand-alone mode.

An ultrahigh quality beam with an energy spread ΔE/E of an order of 10-4 is available for highly precise nuclear physics experiments, realized by the flat-top acceleration system of the ring cyclotron and a highly-stabilized cooling-water temperature-control system of the cyclotron magnets. The world-record energy resolution of ΔE/E = 5 x 10^-5 was achieved by a sophisticated dispersion matching technique using the spectrometer called “Grand Raiden” and the primary dispersive beam transport from the ring cyclotron. An intense 400 MeV proton beam is supplied to the ultra-cold neutron source and the muon source called MuSIC for the research in elementary particle physics and fundamental science. A radio-active beam is secondarily produced by a heavy ion beam for the study of nuclear structure and high spin states.