Speaker
Description
Experimental investigations targeting chemical properties of superheavy elements (SHE) have reached element 115 (Mc) [1]. Chemistry experiments of the heaviest elements are carried out by thermalizing their energetic recoils produced in fusion-evaporation reactions within a gas-filled volume and transporting these solely by gas-flow to a detection setup. The transport process typically requires at least about 0.5 seconds. The next heavier known elements 116 (Lv) to 118 (Og) can be produced at rates of few single atoms per week, but only isotopes with half-lives well below 100 ms are known to date. To extend chemical studies to these elements, a highly-efficient stopping cell with superimposed electrical fields to significantly reduce the transfer time from the separator to the chemistry setup is required. First exploratory experiments with an existing stopping cell coupled to a chemistry-detection setup have been successfully conducted and demonstrated the feasibility of the approach [2,3]. In recent stopping cells, the extraction efficiency is typically in the order of 30 – 75% and the extraction time in the order of tens of ms [4]. To enable studies of the next-heavier chemically unexplored element 116 (Lv), high efficiency for fast-extraction times is highly desirable. Following a concept by Varentsov and Yakushev [5], the atmospheric-pressure stopping cell UniCell has been designed and is currently under construction. Its main component is a ceramic ion funnel with ca. 180 electrodes and 100 µm electrode spacing. In this contribution, we report on simulations studying the stopping cell in detail and present the status of its construction, capabilities and its future prospects.
[1] A. Yakushev et al., Front. Chem. 12 (2024) 1474820
[2] S. Götz et al, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B 507 (2024) 27
[3] G. Tiebel et al, The ion-funnel-to-IVAC system, Annual Report 2023, Laboratory of Radiochemistry, p. 5
[4] C. Droese et al, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 338 (2014) 126
[5] V. Varentsov and A. Yakushev, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 940 (2019) 206
| Email address | j.ballof@gsi.de |
|---|---|
| Funding Agency | The project is funded by the German BMBF (No. 05P24UM3) |
| Classification | Ion guide, gas catcher, and beam manipulation techniques |
