The new Cyclone 18/9 beam transport line at the CNA (Sevilla) for high energy PIXE applications

Abstract

The Cyclone 18/9 cyclotron system at the Centro Nacional de Aceleradores (Sevilla, Spain) is commonly used to create short life radioisotopes for PET applications. Besides, an external beam transport line has been recently installed in one of the target ports with two major purposes: to study the effects of 18 MeV protons irradiation on the behaviour of electronic devices for space applications and to complement the analysis of materials using our 3 MV tandem accelerator with the PIXE measurements at high energy.

In this work, the main elements of our beamline will be briefly described and the first PIXE application will be presented. The usual PIXE, in the analysis of archaeological metallic objects, using around 3 MeV protons requires having a shiny area. Our purpose is to obtain a deeper determination of the bulk composition bombarding with 18 MeV protons through the corroded samples surfaces, without polishing the ancient object. To check this methodology high energy PIXE has been performed on two fibulae of the Later Bronze Age and First Iron Age, coming from the area around Sevilla.