Fast-neutron-induced fission cross section of 242Pu^{242}Pu measured at the neutron time-of-flight facility nELBEnELBE

The fast-neutron-induced fission cross section of Pu242 was measured at the neutron time-of-flight facility nELBE. A parallel-plate fission ionization chamber with novel, homogeneous, large-area Pu242 deposits on Si-wafer backings was used to determine this quantity relative to the IAEA neutron cross-section standard U235(n,f) in the energy range of 0.5 to 10 MeV. The number of target nuclei was determined from the measured spontaneous fission rate of Pu242. This helps to reduce the influence of the fission fragment detection efficiency on the cross section. Neutron transport simulations performed with geant4, mcnp6, and fluka2011 are used to correct the cross-section data for neutron scattering. In the reported energy range the systematic uncertainty is below 2.7% and on average the statistical uncertainty is 4.9%. The determined results show an agreement within 0.67(16)% to recently published data and a good accordance to current evaluated data sets

Production of highly charged ions of rare species by laser-induced desorption inside an electron beam ion trap

This paper reports on the development and testing of a novel, highly efficient technique for the injection of very rare species into electron beam ion traps (EBITs) for the production of highly charged ions (HCI). It relies on in-trap laser-induced desorption of atoms from a sample brought very close to the electron beam resulting in a very high capture efficiency in the EBIT. We have demonstrated a steady production of HCI of the stable isotope $^{165}\mathrm{Ho}$ from samples of only $10^{12}$ atoms ($\sim$ 300 pg) in charge states up to 45+. HCI of these species can be subsequently extracted for use in other experiments or stored in the trapping volume of the EBIT for spectroscopic measurements. The high efficiency of this technique expands the range of rare isotope HCIs available for high-precision nuclear mass and spectroscopic measurements. A first application of this technique is the production of HCI of the synthetic radioisotope $^{163}\mathrm{Ho}$ for a high-precision measurement of the $Q_{\mathrm{EC}}$-value of the electron capture in $^{163}\mathrm{Ho}$ within the Electron Capture in Holmium experiment (ECHo collaboration) ultimately leading to a measurement of the electron neutrino mass with an uncertainty on the sub-eV level

Nuclear structure investigations of 253−255^{253 − 255}Es by laser spectroscopy

I am one of the LISA affiliates and happy to announce my first publication in Phys. Rev. C (https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevC.105.L021302) about nuclear structure investigations in the rare isotopes 253-255Es!Funding: - U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Heavy Elements Chemistry Program, under Award DE-FG02-13ER16414. - This work has been supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, Germany) under Project No. 05P18UMCIA. - The isotopes used in this research were supplied by the U.S. DOE Isotope Program, managed by the Office of Science

Muonic atom spectroscopy with microgram target material

Muonic atom spectroscopy–the measurement of the x rays emitted during the formation process of a muonic atom–has a long standing history in probing the shape and size of nuclei. In fact, almost all stable elements have been subject to muonic atom spectroscopy measurements and the absolute charge radii extracted from these measurements typically offer the highest accuracy available. However, so far only targets of at least a few hundred milligram could be used as it required to stop a muon beam directly in the target to form the muonic atom. We have developed a new method relying on repeated transfer reactions taking place inside a 100 bar hydrogen gas cell with an admixture of 0.25% deuterium that allows us to drastically reduce the amount of target material needed while still offering an adequate efficiency. Detailed simulations of the transfer reactions match the measured data, suggesting good understanding of the processes taking place inside the gas mixture. As a proof of principle we demonstrate the method with a measurement of the 2p-1s muonic x rays from a 5 μ g gold target

Rapid extraction of short-lived isotopes from a buffer gas cell for use in gas-phase chemistry experiments, Part II: On-line studies with short-lived accelerator-produced radionuclides

A novel combination of advanced gas-chromatography and detection systems coupled to a buffer-gas cell was characterized on-line to allow gas-phase chemical studies of accelerator-produced short-lived α-decaying mercury, francium, and astatine isotopes. These were produced in 40Ar- and 48Ca-induced nuclear fusion–evaporation reactions, subsequently isolated in the recoil separators MARS at Texas A&M University, USA, and TASCA at GSI Darmstadt, Germany, before being thermalized in a buffer-gas-stopping cell. From the latter, the nuclear reaction products were extracted into gas-phase chromatographic systems, suitable for registering α-decaying short-lived radionuclides, such as isotopes of superheavy elements. Efficiencies of 21(3)% for 204-209Fr were reached for the extraction into the optimized miniCOMPACT gas-chromatography setup, indicating that this technique enables the identification of isotopes of volatile as well as non-volatile elements. These studies guide the path towards chemical investigations of superheavy elements beyond flerovium, which are out of reach with currently used setups

New Short-Lived Isotope 221^{221}U and the Mass Surface Near N = 126

Two short-lived isotopes 221U and 222U were produced as evaporation residues in the fusion reaction 50Ti+176Yb at the gas-filled recoil separator TASCA. An α decay with an energy of Eα=9.31(5)  MeV and half-life T1/2=4.7(7)  μs was attributed to 222U. The new isotope 221U was identified in α-decay chains starting with Eα=9.71(5)  MeV and T1/2=0.66(14)  μs leading to known daughters. Synthesis and detection of these unstable heavy nuclei and their descendants were achieved thanks to a fast data readout system. The evolution of the N=126 shell closure and its influence on the stability of uranium isotopes are discussed within the framework of α-decay reduced width