Active targets for the study of nuclei far from stability

Weakly bound nuclear systems can be considered to represent a good testing-ground of our understanding of non-perturbative quantum systems. Reactions leading to bound and unbound states in systems with very unbalanced neutron-to-proton ratios are used to understand the properties of these systems. Radioactive beams with energies from below the Coulomb barrier up to several hundreds MeV/nucleon are now available, and with these beams, a broad variety of studies of nuclei near the drip-line can be performed. To compensate for the low intensity of secondary beams as compared to primary beams, thick targets and high efficiency detection is necessary. In this context, a new generation of detectors was developed, called active target detectors: the detector gas is used as target, and the determination of the reaction vertex in three dimensions allows for good resolution even with thick targets. The reaction products can be measured over essentially 4π. The physics explored with these detectors together with the technology developed will be described.