Operation Of The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Au- Ion Source

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory is beginning its second year of operation. A cesium sputter ion source injecting into a tandem Van de Graaff provides the gold ions for RHIC. The ion source is operated in the pulsed beam mode and produces a 500-mus-long pulse of Au- with a peak intensity of 290 muA at the entrance of the tandem. After acceleration in the tandem and post-stripping, this results in a beam of Au+32 with an intensity of 80 muA and an energy of 182 MeV. Over the last several years, a series of improvements have been made to increase the intensity of, the pulsed beam from the ion source. Details of the source performance and improvements will be presented. In addition, an effort is under way to provide other beam species for RHIC collisions. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.