Exploring the Nuclear Chart via Precision Mass Spectrometry with the TITAN MR-TOF MS

Exploring the Nuclear Chart via Precision Mass Spectrometry with the TITAN MR-TOF MS

Isotopes at the limits of nuclear existence are of great interest for their critical role in nuclear astrophysical reactions and their exotic structure. Experimentally, exotic nuclides are challenging to address due to their low production cross-sections, overwhelming amounts of contamination, and l...

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Main Authors: Annabelle Czihaly, Soenke Beck, Julian Bergmann, Callum L. Brown, Thomas Brunner, Timo Dickel, Jens Dilling, Eleanor Dunling, Jake Flowerdew, Danny Fusco, Leigh Graham, Zach Hockenbery, Chris Izzo, Andrew Jacobs, Brian Kootte, Yang Lan, Stephan Malbrunot-Ettenauer, Fernando Maldonado Millán, Ali Mollaebrahimi, Erich Leistenschneider, Eleni Marina Lykiardopoulou, Ish Mukul, Stefan F. Paul, Wolfgang R. Plaß, Moritz Pascal Reiter, Christoph Scheidenberger, James L. Tracy, A. A. Kwiatkowski
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-01-01
Series:Atoms
Subjects:
mass spectrometry
proton dripline
time-of-flight mass spectrometry
ion traps
radioactive ion beams
experimental nuclear physics
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-2004/13/1/6
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Summary:Isotopes at the limits of nuclear existence are of great interest for their critical role in nuclear astrophysical reactions and their exotic structure. Experimentally, exotic nuclides are challenging to address due to their low production cross-sections, overwhelming amounts of contamination, and lifetimes of typically less than a second. To this end, a Multiple-Reflection Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer at the TITAN-TRIUMF facility was built to determine atomic masses. This device is the preferred tool to work with exotic nuclides due to its ability to resolve the species of interest from contamination and short measurement cycle times, enabling mass measurements of isotopes with millisecond half-lives. With a relative precision of the order 10<sup>−7</sup>, we demonstrate why the TITAN MR-TOF MS is the tool of choice for precision mass surveys for nuclear structure and astrophysics. The capabilities of the device are showcased in this work, including new mass measurements of short-lived tin isotopes (<sup>104–107</sup>Sn) approaching the proton dripline as well as <sup>89</sup>Zr, <sup>90</sup>Y, and <sup>91</sup>Y. The last three illustrate how the broadband surveys of MR-TOF MS reach beyond the species of immediate interest.
ISSN:2218-2004

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