Nuclear Structure Laboratory (NSL) > Homepage

This is one of only three medium-scale accelerator laboratories in the United States funded by the National Science Foundation to perform basic research in a wide spectrum of areas that overlap with most of the highest priority scientific objectives in modern nuclear physics.

The centerpiece of the Nuclear Structure Laboratory is the model FN Tandem Van de Graaff Accelerator, which is capable of reaching acceleration voltages in excess of 10.5 MegaVolts. The FN Tandem is used to accelerate a wide variety of ion beams to energies that range from a few MeV to 100 MeV. Most of these ion beams are produced by a standard Sputter Ion Source (SNICS), with helium beams being produced using a separate Helium Ion Source (HIS). In addition to the continuous, or DC, beams available from these sources, experimenters may elect to bunch and pulse the beams. The buncher/pulser system is capable of producing beam pulses of about 1.5 nsec width, separated by 100 nsec (or by some multiple of 100 nsec using the pulse selector).

In addition to the FN Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator, the laboratory also operates a KN Van de Graaff accelerator. This accelerator has a maximum accelerating voltage of 4 MegaVolts, and provides high intensity positively charged, low-mass ion beams, used for experimental nuclear astrophysics applications. The KN accelerator facility is, at present, completely separate from the FN Tandem facility, with a separate target room and dedicated target stations.

A unique feature of the NSL laboratory is the ability to produce secondary beams of short-lived nuclear isotopes at energies near the Coulomb barrier, and use them in nuclear reaction and nuclear structure experiments. Only a handful of laboratories in the world have a similar capability.