The use of second foil stripping in tandem accelerators

The 10 MV FN Tandem at the University of Notre Dame’s Nuclear Science Laboratory has the option for a second foil stripper halfway down its high energy column. With its utilization, users are able to produce beams with higher energies and/or transmission than single foil stripping alone would be capable of achieving. A discussion of the Schiwietz–Grande, Nikolaev–Dmitriev, and Baudinet-Robinet semi-empirical models used to determine the resulting charge state abundances, as well as how they compare to measured charge state distributions is presented. The advantages of a second foil stripper are discussed alongside measurements of the charge state abundances produced. The potential for more interfering beam species of similar magnetic rigidity is also discussed. It was found that for most of the beams tested, second foil stripping allowed higher energies with higher yields than the single terminal foil stripping alone could achieve which can enhance the capabilities of other laboratories using similar accelerator systems.