Status of the RIKEN RIB factory

The first outcome from a newly operational RJ beam facility called the RIKEN RIB Factory was obtained in the first test experiment conducted in the last week of May 2007. A new very neutron-rich isotope, Pd-125 was discovered in the in-flight fission of U-238 isotopes accelerated up to 345 MeV/nucleon. Since 1997, RIKEN has been constructing this facility, where three new ring cyclotrons with K-values of 570 MeV, 980 MeV and 2600 MeV, respectively, boost energies of the output beams from the existing K540-MeV ring cyclotron up to 440 MeV/nucleon for light ions and 350 MeV/nucleon for very heavy ions. The K2600-MeV ring cyclotron is the world´s first ring cyclotron with superconducting sector magnets. These energetic heavy-ion beams are converted into intense RI beams via projectile fragmentation of stable isotopes or in-flight fission of uranium isotopes by a superconducting fragment separator.