A fast ionization chamber for the study of fusion reactions induced by radioactive beams

A new fast ionization chamber has been designed and built at the National Laboratories of Legnaro (LNL) to ensure a high counting rate particle identification for fusion studies involving exotic beams up to 105 pps. To reduce the response time of the ionization chamber, a design using a series of tilted electrodes has been adopted. The readout of the fast IC was optimized and extensive tests using stable heavy-ion beams demonstrated its ability to operate at high counting rates. This feature and the much larger solid angle coverage will allow to detect fusion–evaporation residues with very high efficiency.