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Mass measurements of fission and projectile fragments, produced via 238 U and 124 Xe primary beams, have been performed with the multiple-reflection time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MR-TOF-MS) of the Fragment Separator (FRS) Ion Catcher with a mass resolving power (FWHM) of up to 410 000 and an uncertainty of down to 6 × 10 −8. The nuclides were produced and separated in flight with the fragment separator FRS at 300 to 1000 MeV/u and thermalized in a cryogenic stopping cell. The data-analysis procedure was developed to determine with highest accuracy the mass values and the corresponding uncertainties for the most challenging conditions: down to a few events in a spectrum and overlapping distributions, which can be distinguished from a single peak only by a broader peak shape. With this procedure, the resolution of low-lying isomers is increased by a factor of up to 3 compared to standard data analysis. The ground-state masses of 31 short-lived nuclides of 15 different elements with half-lives of down to 17.9 ms and count rates as low as 11 events per nuclide were determined. This is the first direct mass measurement for seven nuclides. The excitation energies and the isomer-to-groundstate ratios of six isomeric states with excitation energies of as little as 280 keV were measured. For nuclides with known mass values, the average relative deviation from the literature values is (4.5 ± 5.3) × 10 −8. The measured two-neutron separation energies and their slopes near and at the N = 126 and Z = 82 shell closures indicate a strong element-dependent binding energy of the first neutron above the closed proton shell Z = 82. The experimental results deviate strongly from the theoretical predictions, especially for N = 126 and N = 127.

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The Phase-Imaging Ion-Cyclotron-Resonance (PI-ICR) technique has been commissioned at the JYFLTRAP double Penning trap mass spectrometer. This technique is based on projecting the ion motion in the Penning trap onto a position-sensitive multichannel-plate ion detector. Mass measurements of stable 85 Rb + and 87 Rb + ions with well-known mass values show that relative uncertainties ∆m/m ≤ 7 · 10 −10 are possible to reach with the PI-ICR technique at JYFLTRAP. The significant improvement both in resolving power and in precision compared to the conventional Time-of-Flight Ion Cyclotron Resonance technique will enable measurements of close-lying isomeric states and of more exotic isotopes as well as ultra-high precision measurements required, e.g., for neutrino physics. In addition, a new phase-dependent cleaning method based on the differences in the accumulated cyclotron motion phases has been demonstrated with short-lived 127 In + and 127m In + ions.

Collinear laser spectroscopy was performed on Ga (Z ¼ 31) isotopes at ISOLDE, CERN. A gas-filled linear Paul trap (ISCOOL) was used to extend measurements towards very neutron-rich isotopes (N ¼ 36-50 Nuclear structure has for some time been described by the single-particle (SP) states of nucleons in the shell model. The evolution and reordering of these levels along isotopic chains is explored at radioactive ion beam facilities to provide information on the nature of the nucleonnucleon interaction. Key to these studies is the determination of the value of the nuclear spin of each state, which provides a means of level identification. Whereas the spin may sometimes be inferred from nuclear decay and -spectroscopy data, laser spectroscopy [1,2] permits a measurement of the nuclear spin, in addition to the state's magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moments. The latter two observables are very sensitive to the wave function and thus to the SP shell evolution. The sensitivity of the laser technique has been critically enhanced using bunched beams from a gas-filled linear rf quadrupole known as an ion beam cooler [3]. In this Letter we report the application of ISCOOL [4]-an ion beam cooler recently installed at ISOLDE-for collinear laser spectroscopy on Ga isotopes from stable to the magic N ¼ 50 shell gap, located 15 isotopes away from stability. For the first time g.s. spins have been measured, revealing sudden changes not observed in earlier experiments.The Ga isotopes have three protons outside the Z ¼ 28 shell gap. In a normal shell-model ordering, the three protons would occupy the p 3=2 level, leading to a g.s. spin I ¼ 3=2 for all odd-A Ga isotopes. However, in the Cu isotones with two protons fewer, it has been demonstrated that the proton SP ordering changes when neutrons start occupying the g 9=2 orbital around N ¼ 40 [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. An inversion of the p 3=2 and f 5=2 SP levels was established recently in 75 Cu at N ¼ 46 [11], where the 5=2 À g.s. is near degenerate with a 3=2 À and 1=2 À state [11]. In this Letter we establish the g.s. spins and structure of the odd-A Ga isotopes from N ¼ 36 up to the N ¼ 50 shell closure, and we investigate the systematics of the 1=2 À , 3=2 À and 5=2 À levels.Fission fragments were produced in a thick UC x target (45 g=cm 2 ) using 1.4 GeV protons at an average current of $2 A. A proton-neutron converter [16] was used to suppress the Rb production. The Ga yield was selectively enhanced by a factor of 100 using the Resonant Ionization Laser-Ion Source [17], extracted and accelerated to 30 keV and mass selected. The ions were cooled and bunched by the newly-installed ISCOOL [4] and delivered to the collinear laser spectroscopy setup [18]. The ion beam was