Accelerator mass spectrometry and radioactive-ion beams

Nuclear physics now explore nuclides in the regions furthest remote from the valley of stability. Production of these nuclides requires nuclear reactions in which at least one of the partners is radioactive and is often short-lived. A sustained effort is presently made throughout the nuclear physics community to develop radioactive-ion beams (RIBs) of these species. The accompanying experimental challenges, their solutions and often the physics studied have deep analogies with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). While RIBs are expected to have intensities far greater than the typical rare isotope beams of AMS, isobaric purity for example remains there a major concern. Techniques now familiar to AMS based on, for example, dE/dx, range, ionic charge state, gas-filled magnets are similarly applied. Likewise, ion sources for radioactive nuclei and detector systems have related requirements. We describe here several of these techniques and recent experiments.