Overview

The ALTO research platform consists of two accelerators that are unique in France: a 15 MV Tandem electrostatic accelerator for stable beams from proton to heavy ions, clusters and neutron production, and a electron linear accelerator for the production of low energy radioactive beams by photofission. These machines are surrounded by a large variety of experimental instruments/devices located on 10 different beam lines. The diversity of the beams produced facilitates wide-ranging research in nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics and interdisciplinary activities such as health physics. The accelerators operate each year for typically 4000 hours to perform up to 30 experiments, during which time it operates 24/7. The ALTO platform serves local, national and international users representing a community of around 250 researchers. ALTO has some unique features: It is the only installation worldwide that delivers low-energy radioactivity beams from the photo-ission of ²³⁸U, it can provide rare heavy-ion beams such as ³He and ¹⁴C, and is also unique in its capacity to provide high-flux naturally directional neutron beams with the LICORNE neutron converter.