The large scattering chamber can be used for a broad
variety of experiments. It has been loaned by Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory to the Hope College Physics Department
and was installed in 1994 as a general and multi-purpose
target chamber in the East Target room for experiments by
the Hope College group and other users. Because of its particular
shape it was nick-named R2D2 chamber. The Hope College group
of Paul deYoung has designed and constructed an updated
positioning readout system for reliably operating the chamber.
R2D2 has mainly been used for the study of low energy heavy
ion reactions and for systematic scattering measurements
for nuclear astrophysics. The dome was painted in gold and
crowned by a "Notre Dame" statue in an "un-authorized" action
by Paul Tischhauser during the night after his PhD graduation.
For his PhD data on a high precision 12C(a,a)
experiment installed in R2D2 he has spent many weeks of
re-design, alignment, and nightshifts with the chamber.
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