Charge strippers for Radioisotope Beam Factory at RIKEN

The accelerator complex at the RIKEN Radioisotope Beam Factory accelerates heavy ions ranging from oxygen to uranium using triple stripping system to provide the beams at required charge. In many cases, the charge strippers cause problems during high-intensity beams accelerator operation. The charge stripper problem has been most significant during uranium beam acceleration because the lifetimes of the conventional carbon foils are extremely short. We conducted extensive R&D on the first stripper and found a solution using a low-Z gas stripper. We also plan to modify a second stripper operating recently with short-lifetime carbon foils. The stripper with better parameters will be needed when the beam intensity is increased by a new injector system for acceleration of uranium beam with higher charge.