The Development and Applications of an Accelerator Based Positron Source

Positrons have the potential to be extremely useful probes of solid state and atomic systems, but this potential is far from being realised because antimatter is not readily available. The most common source of positrons used in laboratories utilises the radio‐isotope 22Na, but this methodology only provides low intensity beams. Here we shall discuss the production of low energy positrons following the in situ creation of the β+ emitting isotope 13N using a relatively low energy radio frequency quadrupole linear accelerator (RFQ linac). Because of its short half life this isotope can be used to create more intense positron beams than are usually available using sources created ex situ, and by extracting the gaseous radioisotope from the target a number of novel applications become possible.