A new precision measurement of the {\alpha}-decay half-life of 190Pt

A laboratory measurement of the $\alpha$-decay half-life of $^{190}$Pt has been performed using a low background Frisch grid ionisation chamber. A total amount of 216.60(17) mg of natural platinum has been measured for 75.9 days. The resulting half-life is $(4.97\pm0.16)\times 10^{11}$ years, with a total uncertainty of 3.2%. This number is in good agreement with the half-life obtained using the geological comparison method

A low background ionisation chamber for alpha-spectroscopy

The goal of designing a low background ionisation chamber is to measure long lived α-decay half-lives which might interfere with rare event searches. Such decays play a part in many fields in nuclear physics and are difficult to measure. A lot of Geiger-Nutall studies also depend on them. Among others the research is specifically aimed at the precision measurements of α emitters mainly within the Lanthanide region. The excellent energy resolution would also allow to search for excited states in α-decays. To achieve this goal a gridded ionisation chamber was constructed using the Frisch-Grid design. A background rate of only 10.9(6) counts per day has been achieved in the energy region of 1 MeV to 9 MeV and improvements are possible. This low background rate and size of the chamber allows precision measurements of long living alpha decays with half-lives in the region of 1 × 1015 years

A low background ionisation chamber for alpha-spectroscopy

The goal of designing a low background ionisation chamber is to measure long lived α-decay half-lives which might interfere with rare event searches. Such decays play a part in many fields in nuclear physics and are difficult to measure. A lot of Geiger-Nutall studies also depend on them. Among others the research is specifically aimed at the precision measurements of α emitters mainly within the Lanthanide region. The excellent energy resolution would also allow to search for excited states in α-decays. To achieve this goal a gridded ionisation chamber was constructed using the Frisch-Grid design. A background rate of only 10.9(6) counts per day has been achieved in the energy region of 1 MeV to 9 MeV and improvements are possible. This low background rate and size of the chamber allows precision measurements of long living alpha decays with half-lives in the region of 1 × 1015 years