The ISOLDE Facility

The ISOLDE facility [1–3] is one of the world-leading laboratories for the production and investigation of radioactive nuclei. ISOLDE belongs to CERN's accelerator complex situated on the border between Switzerland and France (Figure 1). The facility has been in operation since its start in 1967 and is presently receiving protons from the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB) of CERN. The success of ISOLDE is due to the continuous development of new radioactive ion beams and improvement of the experimental conditions. With the upcoming high energy and intensity upgrade HIE-ISOLDE the possibilities for experiments with exotic nuclei will be further boosted. This laboratory portrait gives an overview of the present facility that will focus on the status of radioactive ion beam production, the operation of ISOLDE, and the main experimental equipment rather than aiming at a comprehensive summary of physics results.