BlueSTEAl: A pair of silicon arrays and a zero-degree phoswich detector for studies of scattering and reactions in inverse kinematics

TL;DR

BlueSTEAl is a specialized detector system combining silicon arrays and a phoswich scintillator, designed for studying nuclear reactions and scattering in inverse kinematics with radioactive ion beams, offering high efficiency and isotope separation.

Contribution

The paper introduces BlueSTEAl, a novel detector system optimized for inverse kinematics reactions, with integrated silicon arrays and a phoswich for enhanced detection and particle identification.

Findings

Demonstrated capability to detect light ions and heavy recoils in inverse kinematics

Achieved isotope separation for light nuclei such as beryllium and carbon

High particle rate detection up to 50,000 particles per second

Abstract

BlueSTEAl, the Blue (aluminum chamber of) Silicon TElescope Arrays for light nuclei,has been developed to study direct reactions in inverse kinematics, as well as scattering and breakup reactions using radioactive ion beams. It is a detector system consisting of a pair of annular silicon detector arrays and a zero-degree phoswich plastic scintillator. For typical binary reaction studies in inverse kinematics, light ions are detected by the Si array in coincidence with heavy recoils detected by the phoswich placed at the focal-plane of a zero-degree magnetic spectrometer. The Si array can also be used to detect light nuclei such as berylium and carbon with clear isotope separation, while the phoswich can also be placed at zero degrees without a spectrometer and used as a high-efficiency beam counting monitor with particle identification capability at the rate of up to 5*10^4 particles per second. This paper reports on the capabilities of BlueSTEAl as determined by recent experiments performed at the Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute. The device is also anticipated to be used in future experiments at other radioactive ion beam facilities.