Physics with REX-ISOLDE: from experiment to facility

The REX-ISOLDE project and its physics program are presented. The innovative approach used to post-accelerate essentially all existing radioactive beams available at ISOLDE to 3 MeV u(-1) is presented and beam properties are discussed. Isotopes as light as Li-8 and as heavy as Ra-224 have been used for Coulomb excitation, few-nucleon transfer reaction or fusion evaporation studies. Selected examples of the physics program, primarily utilizing the Miniball detector and segmented silicon detector arrays, are presented emphasizing some unique features of REX-ISOLDE. Finally, the HIE-ISOLDE project aiming at, amongst other goals, increasing the beam energy to 5.5 MeV u(-1) and above, will be briefly discussed.