(Image: ISCOOL, an ion cooler and buncher installed at ISOLDE)

An ion cooler and buncher, ISCOOL, is installed in the HRS section of ISOLDE. Beams with strongly reduced emittances and energy spreads are now available for all experiments downstream the beam line.

Using its bunching capabilities, ISCOOL permits an increase in the sensitivity for experiments such as those devotde to collinear laser spectroscopy. The first physics run with this device took place in July 2008 where the isotope ⁷⁷Ga (T_1/2=13 s) was studied with the COLLAPS laser spectroscopy setup.