Development of an intense ¹⁰Be radioactive beam in 'off-line mode' at the Catania Tandemaccelerator

A Be-10 beam having intensities up to 3 enA has been accelerated at the Tandem of the Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania. The used Be-10 was chemically extracted from a proton irradiated graphite target used for muon production at the Paul Scherrer Institute. In order to maximise the extracted current using a minimum amount of isotope, several preparatory tests, needed to optimise the preparation of the Tandem sputter source cathodes, were performed. The acceleration tests and accelerated beam characteristics will be discussed and examples of beam use for nuclear structure investigations will be presented.