Implementation of a sensitive, narrow-band Fourier-Transform Ion-Cyclotron-Resonance detection for short-lived radionuclides at SHIPTRAP
Rafael Ferrer (Institut für Physik)

The talk presented will deal with high-precision Penning trap mass spectrometry on short-lived radionuclides. Owed to the ability of revealing all nucleonic interactions, mass measurements far off the line of β-stability are expected to bring new insight to the current knowledge of nuclear properties and serve to test the predictive power of mass models and formulas. In nuclear astrophysics, atomic masses are fundamental parameters for the understanding of the synthesis of nuclei in the stellar environments. In the talk ten mass values on radionuclides around A = 90 interspersed in the predicted rp-process pathway and with a relative mass uncertainty δm/m = 6·10^-8 will be presented. Five of them have been experimentally determined for the first time. The measurements have been carried out at the Penning-trap mass spectrometer SHIPTRAP using the destructive time-of-fight ion-cyclotron resonance (TOF-ICR) detection technique. Given the limited performance of the TOF-ICR detection when trying to investigate heavy/superheavy species with small production cross sections (σ < 1 μb), a new detection system is found to be necessary. The second part of the talk will concern with the commissioning of a cryogenic double-Penning trap system for the application of a highly-sensitive, narrow-band Fourier-transform ion-cyclotron-resonance (FT-ICR) detection technique. With the non-destructive FT-ICR detection method a single singly-charged trapped ion will provide the required information to determine its mass. First off-line tests of a new detector system based on a channeltron with an attached conversion dynode, of a cryogenic pumping barrier, to guarantee ultra-high vacuum conditions during mass determination, and of the detection electronics for the required single-ion sensitivity will be reported.