INPP hosts the only accelerator operating in the country, an electrostatic Van de Graaff Tandem accelerator with a maximum acceleration voltage of 5.5 MV. It is a low-energy ion-beam facility, one of the few accelerators of its kind in Europe. It started operating in the 1973 and ever since hosts a very successful multidisciplinary research program being the major scientific instrument not only of the INPP Nuclear Physics and Applications group but also of many other nuclear physics groups from the Greek Universities. Research groups from abroad are also performing measurements at the INPP Tandem, in collaboration with their Greek collaborators.
The accelerator has undergone severe upgrades in the period 2009-2012 thanks to an EC/FP7/REGPOT grant with the acronym LIBRA (Contract No. 230123) of almost 1.5 million Euros. The successful implementation of LIBRA granted the status of a “Center of excellence in Low-energy Ion-Beam Research and Applications” to the Tandem Accelerator Laboratory (TAL) and placed it among leading European low-energy ion-beam laboratories. TAL is currently coordinating the “European Network of Small-scale Accelerator Facilities” (ENSAF), a network of the “European Nuclear Structure and Applications Research” (ENSAR) Integrating Activity funded by the “Horizon 2020” framework program of the European Commission (EC). To date, the Tandem Accelerator Laboratory is recognized by the international scientific community as a laboratory of international stature.
Thanks to LIBRA funds, new state-of-the art instruments and accelerator components have been acquired, including a focused micro-beam system, new HV supplies for quadrupoles and beam-steerers, brand new data-acquisition units and radiation detectors. The major achievement of LIBRA, however, is the creation of a User’s Group around the upgraded accelerator laboratory and the new facilities developed during the course of the project. By the end of the LIBRA project, the LIBRA Users Group consisted of almost 50 external users from Greece and Europe. As of today, at least 1000 hours of beam-time are offered to external users every year.
For more information on the Accelerator visit the homepage of the lab.