The heart of the AGOR accelerator facility is a large superconducting cyclotron, which was designed and built in collaboration with the Institut de Physique Nucléaire Orsay, France. The facility is operational since 1996. The cyclotron accelerates beams of all stable elements (hydrogen – bismuth) to a variable energy. The lowest energy varies between 15 MeV (protons) and 5 MeV/amu (heavy elements), while the highest energy is in the range of 190 MeV (protons) to 15 MeV/amu (heavy elements). The intensity of the beam can be tuned in the range 1 – 1012 particles per second.
A secondary mixed radiation field consisting of neutrons and γ-rays can be produced using a proton or deuteron beam of a suitable energy. The neutron dose of this field is up to about 10 mGy/hour.
Two versatile setups for irradiations in air and vacuum, respectively, are available for experiments. Irradiations with protons are performed in air, while for irradiations with other ions both options may be available, depending of the energy of the ions.
The facility is well suited for irradiation experiments in a number of domains:
• radiobiology (cell culture irradiations; animal experiments)
• particle therapy (charged particle dosimetry; in vivo treatment verification; stopping power measurements; proton imaging)
• radiation hardness studies with protons, heavy ions (e.g. Ne; Ar; Kr; Xe) and neutrons (study of damage mechanisms; assessment for space, aeronautic and terrestrial applications as well as for nuclear and high-energy physics experiments)
• radiation detector R&D for various applications
• material analysis
• ion-induced material modification
External users are, where needed and if their request is within reasonable boundaries according to the assessment of the director, supported by the technical and scientific staff of KVI-CART.