ISAC time-of-flight system with laser-based calibration

The time-of-flight (TOF) system is available at the ISAC rare isotope facility to measure the energy of stable and radioactive ion beams in the range of 0.5-22 Mev/u. The system, comprised of three secondary electron emission based monitors, is operated with practically all available beam intensities starting from as low as 103 ions per second. Recently the system was equipped with the calibration setup based on a 266 nm ultraviolet laser. Laser light interacting with the TOF monitors generates secondary electrons due to the photoelectric effect and acts as a reference beam traveling at a well- known velocity. After calibration, accuracy of energy measurements improved to be better than 0.1%.