ARGONNE, Ill. (April 13, 2010) — Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have pushed the limits of charge breeding and broken a long-standing world record for ionization efficiency of solids.
Argonne's Californium Rare Isotope Breeder Upgrade (CARIBU) project has reached 11.9 percent efficiency with metallic particles of rubidium. The previous metal record was 6.5 percent, using potassium, achieved at Laboratory of Subatomic Physics and Cosmology (LPSC) in Grenoble.