New energy calibration of the CMAM 5MV tandem accelerator

Ion accelerators are fundamental in the ongoing research on materials for future energy sources, being the primary tool for understanding the behaviour of different classes of materials (functional, structural, diagnostic) under e. g. the intense radiation expected in fission reactors or the critical thermal operational conditions in IV generation fission reactors. The relevance of ion accelerators research extends straightforwardly to the modification and analysis of materials to be used in future developments of diverse non-nuclear sources like photovoltaic, fuel batteries, etc. From the analytical point of view, the energy of the accelerated ion needs, in many cases, to be known with a precision higher than e. g. the width of reaction resonances that are used for controlling either the yield of a reaction or the penetration depth of the ion, imposing a calibration of the accelerator terminal voltage. This paper reports on the new energy calibration performed for the 5 MV CMAM tandem accelerator. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.