Coulomb dissociation of N 20,21

Neutron-rich light nuclei and their reactions play an important role in the creation of chemical elements. Here, data from a Coulomb dissociation experiment on N20,21 are reported. Relativistic N20,21 ions impinged on a lead target and the Coulomb dissociation cross section was determined in a kinematically complete experiment. Using the detailed balance theorem, the N19(n,γ)N20 and N20(n,γ)N21 excitation functions and thermonuclear reaction rates have been determined. The N19(n,γ)N20 rate is up to a factor of 5 higher at

Coulomb dissociation of 16O into 4He and 12C

We measured the Coulomb dissociation of 16O into 4He and 12C at the R3B setup in a first campaign within FAIR Phase 0 at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt. The goal was to improve the accuracy of the experimental data for the 12C(a,?)16O fusion reaction and to reach lower center-ofmass energies than measured so far. The experiment required beam intensities of 109 16O ions per second at an energy of 500 MeV/nucleon. The rare case of Coulomb breakup into 12C and 4He posed another challenge: The magnetic rigidities of the particles are so close because of the same mass-To-charge-number ratio A/Z = 2 for 16O, 12C and 4He. Hence, radical changes of the R3B setup were necessary. All detectors had slits to allow the passage of the unreacted 16O ions, while 4He and 12C would hit the detectors' active areas depending on the scattering angle and their relative energies. We developed and built detectors based on organic scintillators to track and identify the reaction products with sufficient precision

Electromagnetic isotope separation of gadolinium isotopes for the production of 152,155Tb for radiopharmaceutical applications

International audienceA demo experiment was performed at the tandem accelerator of MLL Garching where 152Tb was produced by irradiating a unique ion-implanted 152Gd target (99% enriched) with 8 and 12 MeV protons respectively. At these energies mainly 152Tb was produced by (p,n) reactions plus a small quantity of 153Tb by (p,g) reactions. Upper limits are derived for co-production of other Tb isotopes. The achieved radionuclidic purity would enable direct use for human applications. Gd isotopes of adequate isotopic enrichment could be separated with the SIDONIE mass separator at CSNSM Orsay and prepared as cyclotron targets suited for high current irradiations. In a demo experiment samples of highly enriched 158Gd were produced at SIDONIE. The sample purity was characterized by prompt gamma activation analysis at NPI Řež. The neighboring mass 157Gd was found to be suppressed by three to five orders of magnitude, depending on the sample position in the SIDONIE separator

T-REX

Transfer reactions in inverse kinematics using the radioactive ion beams provided by the REX-ISOLDE facility at CERN are very good tools to gain insight into the single-particle properties of exotic nuclei. The new silicon particle detector setup T-REX, optimized for these transfer reactions, is presented in this article. T-REX consists of position sensitive ΔE-E telescopes in a compact configuration that covers up to 66% of the solid angle. The setup allows the identification of the light reaction products and the measurement of their angular distribution for a large range of polar angles. Simultaneous detection of the elastically scattered target-like nuclei enables the determination of the optical model parameters used in the analysis of the experiments

SEI Growth Impacts of Lamination, Formation and Cycling in Lithium Ion Batteries

The accumulation of solid electrolyte interphases (SEI) in graphite anodes related to elevated formation rates (0.1C, 1C and 2C), cycling rates (1C and 2C), and electrode-separator lamination is investigated. As shown previously, the lamination technique is beneficial for the capacity aging in graphite-LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2 cells. Here, surface resistance growth phenomena are quantified using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The graphite anodes were extracted from the graphite NMC cells in their fully discharged state and irreversible accumulations of lithium in the SEI are revealed using neutron depth profiling (NDP). In this post-mortem study, NDP reveals uniform lithium accumulations as a function of depth with lithium situated at the surface of the graphite particles thus forming the SEI. The SEI was found to grow logarithmically with cycle number starting with the main formation in the initial cycles. Furthermore, the EIS measurements indicate that benefits from lamination arise from surface resistance growth phenomena aside from SEI growth in superior anode fractions

Towards a first measurement of the free neutron bound beta decay detecting hydrogen atoms at a throughgoing beamtube in a high flux reactor

In addition to the common 3-body decay of the neutron n → pe-ν̅e there should exist an effective 2-body subset with the electron and proton forming a Hydrogen bound state with well defined total momentum, total spin and magnetic quantum numbers. The atomic spectroscopic analysis of this bound system can reveal details about the underlying weak interaction as it mirrors the helicity distributions of all outgoing particles. Thus, it is unique in the information it carries, and an experiment unravelling this information is an analogue to the Goldhaber experiment performed more than 60 years ago. The proposed experiment will search for monoenergetic metastable BoB H atoms with 326 eV kinetic energy, which are generated at the center of a throughgoing beamtube of a high-flux reactor (e.g., at the PIK reactor, Gatchina). Although full spectroscopic information is needed to possibly reveal new physics our first aim is to prove the occurrence of this decay and learn about backgrounds. Key to the detection is the identification of a monoerergtic line of hydrogen atoms occurring at a rate of about 1 s−1 in the environment of many hydrogen atoms, however having a thermal distribution of about room temperature. Two scenarios for velocity (energy) filtering are discussed in this paper. The first builds on an purely electric chopper system, in which metastable hydrogen atoms are quenched to their ground state and thus remain mostly undetectable. This chopper system employs fast switchable Bradbury Nielsen gates. The second method exploits a strongly energy dependent charge exchange process of metastable hydrogen picking up an electron while traversing an argon filled gas cell, turning it into manipulable charged hydrogen. The final detection of hydrogen occurs through multichannel plate (MCP) detector. The paper describes the various methods and gives an outlook on rates and feasibility at the PIK reactor in Gatchina

Towards a first measurement of the free neutron bound beta decay detecting hydrogen atoms at a throughgoing beamtube in a high flux reactor

In addition to the common 3-body decay of the neutron n → pe-ν̅e there should exist an effective 2-body subset with the electron and proton forming a Hydrogen bound state with well defined total momentum, total spin and magnetic quantum numbers. The atomic spectroscopic analysis of this bound system can reveal details about the underlying weak interaction as it mirrors the helicity distributions of all outgoing particles. Thus, it is unique in the information it carries, and an experiment unravelling this information is an analogue to the Goldhaber experiment performed more than 60 years ago. The proposed experiment will search for monoenergetic metastable BoB H atoms with 326 eV kinetic energy, which are generated at the center of a throughgoing beamtube of a high-flux reactor (e.g., at the PIK reactor, Gatchina). Although full spectroscopic information is needed to possibly reveal new physics our first aim is to prove the occurrence of this decay and learn about backgrounds. Key to the detection is the identification of a monoerergtic line of hydrogen atoms occurring at a rate of about 1 s−1 in the environment of many hydrogen atoms, however having a thermal distribution of about room temperature. Two scenarios for velocity (energy) filtering are discussed in this paper. The first builds on an purely electric chopper system, in which metastable hydrogen atoms are quenched to their ground state and thus remain mostly undetectable. This chopper system employs fast switchable Bradbury Nielsen gates. The second method exploits a strongly energy dependent charge exchange process of metastable hydrogen picking up an electron while traversing an argon filled gas cell, turning it into manipulable charged hydrogen. The final detection of hydrogen occurs through multichannel plate (MCP) detector. The paper describes the various methods and gives an outlook on rates and feasibility at the PIK reactor in Gatchina

Perovskite and Organic Solar Cells on a Rocket Flight

We report perovskite and organic solar cells on a suborbital rocket flight In situ demonstration of functionality and power generation under space conditions Solar cells exceeded power densities between 7 and 14 mW cm−2 Confirmed solar cell operation under diffuse terrestrial irradiatio