Abstract

ISOLDE-CERN is a large-scale facility for the on-line production of exotic radioactive isotopes, with high yields, high elemental selectivity and isotopic purity. Solid-state physics research at ISOLDE-CERN has been ongoing since 1976 and offers opportunities to conduct experiments using various material characterization techniques such as self-diffusion, photoluminescence, emission channelling, Mössbauer spectroscopy and perturbed angular correlations. The expertise of pioneers in our group and the variety of high-quality beams available at ISOLDE offer alternative approaches to research into mining and mineral science. This paper reviews the various beams, techniques and infrastructure that are available at ISOLDE-CERN and presents an investigation of diamond as a typical research example.

Keywords: ISOLDE-CERN; Perturbed angular correlations; Mössbauer spectroscopy; Self-diffusion; Photoluminescence; Emission channelling