SHARAQ spectrometer for high-resolution studies for RI-induced reactions

The SHARAQ spectrometer and High-Resolution Beamline, which began operation in March 2009, have been put into use for six experiments using charge exchange reactions with radioactive isotope beams. For experiments at SHARAQ, detector developments and ion optics studies continue to improve performance in high-resolution nuclear spectroscopy. We have introduced improved timing resolution with CVD diamond detectors, high count-rate beamline tracking detectors and development of multi-particle detection by cathode-readout drift chambers. Ion-optics studies for the high-resolution achromatic (HA) and dispersion-matching (DM) transport modes are also reported here. Momentum tagging in the HA mode demonstrated an improvement in spectroscopic resolution with respect to the momentum spread of the radioactive beam. For the DM transportation mode, a momentum resolution of 1/8100 (FWHM) was achieved by taking into account the positions and angles of the beam at the third focal plane of BigRIPS.