Andromède is an accelerator of the MOSAIC facility, unique in the range of beams of several MeVs delivered: protons, multicharged atomic ions, molecules and gold nanoparticles. An “ion source” R&D activity is being carried out to extend this specificity. It is equipped with two beam lines:
- a 90 ° line, used with the beams delivered by the ECR source and which allows the integration of various dedicated experimental devices: energy loss measurements relating to ion / aggregate-matter interactions; nuclear sub-Coulomb fusion reaction measurements of astrophysical interest; analyses of molecular fragmentation in the interstellar medium. It meet the needs of academic and industrial applications via the irradiation of materials for their characterization.
- a line at 1 ° 29, using the Aunq + beams supplied by an LMIS source for analysis by mass spectrometry and ion imaging. The impact-by-impact surface analysis configuration at Andromède makes it possible to perform molecular analysis at the nanometric scale with detection limits for a few molecules with a mass of less than 1,500 Da. The NIM team in the Nuclear Physics cluster studies secondary emission processes induced by the impact of energetic nanoparticles with Andromède. It hosts experiments, some carried out in collaboration, of surface analysis (composition and spatial correlation) of samples essential to research in astrochemistry, biology, accelerator sciences and nanotechnologies.