Status of the JENSA gas-jet target for experiments with rare isotope beams

Abstract: The JENSA gas-jet target was designed for experiments with radioactive beams provided by the rare isotope re-accelerator ReA3 at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. The gas jet will be the main target for the Separator for Capture Reactions SECAR at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams on the campus of Michigan State University, USA. In this work, we describe the advantages of a gas-jet target, detail the current recirculating gas system, and report recent measurements of helium jet thicknesses of up to about $10^{19}$ atoms/cm$^2$. Finally a comparison with other supersonic gas-jet targets is presented.