Commissioning of the HELIOS spectrometer

This paper describes the implementation and commissioning of a device based on a new concept for measurements of nuclear reactions in inverse kinematics. The HELIcal Orbit Spectrometer, HELIOS, was commissioned at Argonne National Laboratory by studying the 28Si(d,p)29Si reaction in inverse kinematics. This experiment served as a proof of principle for this previously untested concept, and was used to verify the response and performance characteristics of HELIOS.