State-of-the-art post-accelerators for radioactive beams

The increased availability of rare isotope beams in the field of low energy nuclear physics has enabled dramatic advancements in the understanding of nuclear matter during the last decade. The energy required for these nuclear physics experiments range from thermal energies to energies around the Coulomb barrier, as well as fast beams from 50 MeV/nucleon to several hundred MeV/nucleon generated by fragmentation facilities. This paper focuses on radioactive ion beam facilities utilizing rare isotope post-accelerators which cover beam energies ranging from a few hundred keV/nucleon to about 20 MeV/nucleon. An overview of the various existing post-accelerator facilities is given and the design features and challenges associated with these facilities are explored. A dedicated section of the paper will focus on describing the ReAccelerator facility (ReA) at Michigan State University as an example of a recently installed state-of-the-art post-accelerator.