CERN-MEDICIS: A Review Since Commissioning in 2017

The CERN-MEDICIS (MEDical Isotopes Collected from ISolde) facility has delivered its first radioactive ion beam at CERN (Switzerland) in December 2017 to support the research and development in nuclear medicine using non-conventional radionuclides. Since then, fourteen institutes, including CERN, have joined the collaboration to drive the scientific program of this unique installation and evaluate the needs of the community to improve the research in imaging, diagnostics, radiation therapy and personalized medicine. The facility has been built as an extension of the ISOLDE (Isotope Separator On Line DEvice) facility at CERN. Handling of open radioisotope sources is made possible thanks to i…

Shapes and Collectivity in Neutron Deficient Even-Mass 188–198Pb Isotopes

Collectivity in ${}^{\mathrm{196,198}}$Pb isotopes probed in Coulomb-excitation experiments at REX-ISOLDE

The neutron-deficient ${}^{\mathrm{196,198}}$Pb isotopes have been studied in Coulomb-excitation experiments employing the Miniball γ-ray spectrometer and radioactive ion beams from the REX-ISOLDE post-accelerator at CERN. The reduced transition probabilities of the first excited 2+ states in 196Pb and 198Pb nuclei have been measured for the first time. Values of $B(E2)={18.2}_{-4.1}^{+4.8}$ W.u. and $B(E2)={13.1}_{-3.5}^{+4.9}$ W.u., were obtained, respectively. The experiment sheds light on the development of collectivity when moving from the regime governed by the generalised seniority scheme to a region, where intruding structures, associated with different deformed shapes, start to com…

First operational experience of HIE-ISOLDE

The High Intensity and Energy ISOLDE project (HIE-ISOLDE)* is a major upgrade of the ISOLDE facility at CERN. The energy range of the post-accelerator will be extended from 2.85 MeV/u to 9.3 MeV/u for beams with A/q = 4.5 (and to 14.3 MeV/u for A/q = 2.5) once all the cryomodules of the superconducting accelerator are in place. The project has been divided into different phases, the first of which (phase 1a) finished in October 2015 after the hardware and beam commissioning were completed**. The physics campaign followed with the delivery of both radioactive and stable beams to two different experimental stations. The characteristics of the beams (energies, intensities, time structure and b…

Production of mass-separated Erbium-169 towards the first preclinical in vitro investigations

The β−-particle-emitting erbium-169 is a potential radionuclide toward therapy of metastasized cancer diseases. It can be produced in nuclear research reactors, irradiating isotopically-enriched 168Er2O3. This path, however, is not suitable for receptor-targeted radionuclide therapy, where high specific molar activities are required. In this study, an electromagnetic isotope separation technique was applied after neutron irradiation to boost the specific activity by separating 169Er from 168Er targets. The separation efficiency increased up to 0.5% using resonant laser ionization. A subsequent chemical purification process was developed as well as activity standardization of the radionuclid…