Bambino is a silicon detector that gives TIGRESS direction. It is a charged particle detector that detects the direction and energy of the heavy nuclei scattered in Coulomb excitation experiments described in the TIGRESS section. Bambino was developed by the U.S. Department of Energy‘s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratoryand the University of Rochester as part of a TRIUMF research collaboration. 

Bambino’s ring-shaped silicon detectors are located inside the central focus of the TIGRESS target chamber. Depending on the experiment, the rings are placed from 30 to 70 mm from the target, where they detect beam ions scattered by Coulex reactions. 

When a beam is fired at a TIGRESS target, Bambino counts the scattered ions and measures their energy and direction. TIGRESS then counts the gamma rays emitted from these ions. Together, TIGRESS and Bambino measure the fraction of ions that get excited (typically 1-in-1000, but could be ten times higher or lower). This excitation probability determines the beam ion’s nuclear structure; high excitation probabilities typically correspond to collective nuclei, while single-particle behavior yields low excitation probabilities. 

 For more information, please see the section on TIGRESS.